Re: canvas <html> <body>

In message <3CCFCDE0.1070606@hixie.ch>, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> 
writes
>> If one wants to make a generic XML viewer with CSS capabilities, should one
>> then start displaying from the root (for example <html> in XHTML) element,
>> and set in the style sheet that <head> is display:none, same for script etc.
>
>That is correct. For an example of such a browser, look at Netscape 
>6.x.

The idea of using generic XML mark-up, of which it is being claimed 
XHTML is 'just another example', seems wrong to me.

XML just provides a meta-language so the actual uses to which it is put 
depend entirely on the application.  Some applications will be suitable 
for direct styling of the contents using CSS, some will not. An example 
of an XML application that manifestly is not suitable for this would be 
SVG; also RDF.  Even a pure XML user agent MUST have some prior 
knowledge of the XML applications it can expect in order to know (a) 
whether it can be styled directly using a style sheet (b) if it can, 
then which internal default style sheet might be appropriate and (c) 
which features of the language require separate action outside of the 
internal style mechanism (like <img> with an XML+CSS1 browser, say). 
The argument stands with (a) and (b) even if CSS3 eventually renders (c) 
irrelevant.

Generic mark-up is *not*for use on the WWW; only predefined applications 
agreed between the parties in advance.  XML doesn't change this. The 
idea that XML is designed to allow authors to 'make up new tags' has 
been totally disproved, to my satisfaction at least!

XHTML explicitly does not require CSS.  We shouldn't confuse the way one 
browser (Mozilla) has chosen to implement XHTML with the principles of 
separated style and semantics.  XHTML makes no requirements about which 
element is the canvas, regardless of whether it is served as text/html 
or text/xml.  Nor can CSS demand (AFAIK) that the root element of a 
document be 'styleable', because CSS is generic enough to be applied to 
(e.g.) elements of an SVG document.

-- 
George Lund

Received on Wednesday, 1 May 2002 14:47:36 UTC