Re: Using CSS for XML Events

Another way to think of such things in XML is to
put on a Lisp hat.
With a Lisp hat on, an XML element is just a Lisp special form ,
i.e. a construct that people use so often that it deserves a special
syntax.

In that view, the problem we are discussing here should not be viewed
as one of class vs id vs idref, but rather as a question of what it is
we are trying to enable.

If it is indeed the case that there is a particular handler that is
generic and rich to justify being wired up to lots of different
elements on a page, --say the squishyButtonWithPoorResponse example,
we need to ask if it makes more sense to create an XML element
in the language in question that does the requisite wiring under the
hoods, rather than smatter class or idref attrs all over the page.

>>>>> "Jeremy" == Jeremy Dunck <ralinon@hotmail.com> writes:
    >> From: "T. V. Raman" <tvraman@us.ibm.com> Interesting
    >> observation --wonder how the CSS group feels about turning CSS
    >> classes to a means of acquiring interaction behavior which is
    >> what your suggestion would lead us to.
    >>
    >> What I mean is--
    >>
    >> today you use CSS class="squareFlashingRedButton" to get a
    >> particular look; what you're suggesting is to create
    >> class="squishyUnresponsiveButton" to mean attach a particular
    >> feel to all elements having that class.

    Jeremy> <snip>

    Jeremy> Since the HTML Class attribute really has little to do
    Jeremy> with CSS (except to a CSS engine), it'd probably be an OK
    Jeremy> choice to provide classes of event handling.  However, you
    Jeremy> stand the chance of namespace collisions (that is, is a
    Jeremy> specific class value for presentation, or for event
    Jeremy> wiring?).  Also, it is not a good solution for the general
    Jeremy> case of XML, as not all XML schema have classes, while all
    Jeremy> have IDs.

    Jeremy> I'd be surprised if using IDREFs for wireup is really the
    Jeremy> end goal.  Perhaps later they will recommend that XQuery
    Jeremy> or XPath be used to select nodes for a particular event
    Jeremy> handler.  This has the benefit of quick schema-based event
    Jeremy> wireup, but it's not terribly straight-forward.

    Jeremy> Of course, there's always manual wireup using the DOM
    Jeremy> onLoad.

    Jeremy> The latter is conceptually similar to what many languages
    Jeremy> supporting dynamic event handlers do, and makes the most
    Jeremy> sense to me...

    Jeremy> -Jeremy

    Jeremy>
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--
Best Regards,
--raman
------------------------------------------------------------
T. V. Raman:  PhD (Cornell University)
IBM Research: Human Language Technologies
Architect:    Conversational And Multimodal WWW Standards
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Received on Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:02:48 UTC