Re: Using an XSL Formatter as an XSL-FO Web Browser

Dave Pawson <daveP@dpawson.freeserve.co.uk> writes:

> I don't remember people complaining about it there?  Whats the
> justification for having it? Especially if its an overhead?

Property refinement/resolution make it possible to have an inheritance
mechanism which makes it much easier to write stylesheets as you don't
need to specify everything everywhere. It also allows shorthand
properties and relative units, the latter being very handy using
several stylesheets on the same document (e.g. if you want to add a
user template saying something like 'make these headers twice as
big').

Other (minor) advantages I can think of are: it makes the FO file
easier to read (in case you have to), it produces shorter documents
and it makes it easier to restyle an FO file on the client style (if
you're unlucky enough to receive FO files directly).

Are you suggesting that we'd be better off without it, just because
it's an overhead?

Using the CSS syntax and mechanism has not just been a political move,
it also makes sense on technical grounds. Common formatting properties
are now developped by both working groups, and that's the way things
should be IMO.

Max.

Received on Tuesday, 13 February 2001 10:55:40 UTC