Re: An open challenge: HTML 4.0 tables

[Chris Maden <crism@xxxxxxx>]

[Steve Tinney]
> This raises a question that has been on my mind for a while.  When I
> first heard about DSSSL I (naively) assumed that here was a tool
> that would allow one to make many different kinds of output with a
> single style sheet, perhaps just by specifying a different output
> type on the command line.
> 
> It seems that most people do not use it this way; does anybody?  Are
> there any evolving best strategies for making a style sheet that can
> generate html or rtf or tex with no changes to source or style
> sheet?

This is more a limitation of the tool than the language.  Jade is the
only realistic DSSSL tool that I know of, and it is not (yet) a
formatter, but rather a translator.  It punts the actual splash-of-
ink placement decisions to another tool: Word, Navigator, TeX...
Since each of these formats has its quirks (probably TeX least of all,
from this point of view), people optimize their stylesheets for the
intended output.  (Or, in the case of HTML, generate it more
pedantically using the SGML back-end.)  When Jade (or any other tool)
has PostScript or other *formatted* output available, then people will
use DSSSL strictly as intended, but probably not until then.

All IMO.

-Chris
-- 
<!NOTATION SGML.Geek PUBLIC "-//Anonymous//NOTATION SGML Geek//EN">
<!ENTITY crism PUBLIC "-//O'Reilly//NONSGML Christopher R. Maden//EN"
"<URL>http://www.oreilly.com/people/staff/crism/ <TEL>+1.617.499.7487
<USMAIL>90 Sherman Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA" NDATA SGML.Geek>

 DSSSList info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist