Re: Dec16 - fo tables

I speak for myself and not for the XSL WG, but...


On Sat, 19 Dec 1998, Andy Dent wrote:

> Firstly I'm a little disappointed that there was no 'changes since last
> version'
> summary for formatting objects.

There has been a lot of work done on:

  1. Harmonization with CSS and the common formatting model.
  2. The XSL formatting model.
  3. Lists.
  4. Encoding and production processes to manage this body of knowledge.

You will see more in the future.

> Secondly, it seems to me that the area-container and block-areas concepts
> encompass HTML tables - I'd like to see a paragraph clarifying this
> relationship.

Tables specify a higher level of specification of constraints on the
generation of the areas that might make up a table.  It would seem that
there is a lot more to tables... but, at some simple level, I could see
this.

> One concern is that the layout model of area containers doesn't map
> naturally onto a grid. If we have a grid of with column widths varying
> across the grid, then that requires very careful specification of ac
> positions.
> 
> In other words, whilst the area model may be powerful enough to generate
> HTML tables, its model may be too awkward for most people. I think we need
> higher-level two-dimensional layout constructs which generate area
> containers.

It is certainly possible for there to be "shorthand" formatting objects
like the list formatting objects to make things easy to use.  This is one
of the cool parts of formatting objects.

Can you identify areas that you think are not easy to use in the current
draft?

> There are also other desirable high-level layout patterns, as seen in
> Fresco http://www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk/Documentation/Fresco/fresco/Examples.html
> and which are well implemented in Rogue Wave's zApp framework.
> Andy Dent BSc MACS AACM, Software Designer, A.D. Software, Western Australia
> OOFILE - Database, Reports, Graphs, GUI for c++ on Mac, Unix & Windows
> PP2MFC - PowerPlant->MFC portability
> http://www.highway1.com.au/adsoftware/crossplatform.html
> In SF for Macworld Jan 1st-9th 1999, at the AppMaker stand in DevDepot

I have used Fresco in past projects and I think there is a good analogy to
what we are doing.  It would be good for someone to do an analysis of the
formatting model of something like Fresco against XSL.

So, are you volunteering?  ;-)

=============================================================================
R. Alexander Milowski      alex@veosystems.com     (650) 623-2806       v|e|o
                          MOS | sed s/SG/X/g > DYX

Received on Saturday, 26 December 1998 10:42:04 UTC