RE: The big picture

[Didier PH Martin <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John,

- Is DSSSL on its way out except among a few diehards?

Didier replies:
I do not know

- Assuming XHTML 1.0 is the Web of the Future, will XSL and CSS
  coexist, or is one of them looking like it will become the
  dominant technology?  I understand they have converged on
  the same internal rendering machine---is that true?

Didier replies:
Not exactly, what is most likely to occurs is XSLT to transform an XML
document (based on a particular schema) into a rendering language such as
WML, XHTML, SMIL, SVG or VoiceML. CSS is most likely to be used for
fine-tuning the rendition more particularly for XHTML or to complement SVG.
My own opinion - XSLFO won't be a very popular guy. Will it be popular in
the printed media arena? maybe if an ISV also bundle it with an expression
language such as javascript.

- What is the Document Object Model and how does it fit in?

Didier replies:
DSSSL is based on the grove model which is more powerful and versatile than
the DOM. But the DOM does a good job in browsers and for modest
applications. Waht to think of a document obkect model which does not even
allow to load or save a document. My own opinion, it needs some improvements
and the WG needs to do some homework to unify the different models (i.e.
info sets).

- Is there another trend I've missed?

Didier replies:
I do not know.

Cheers
Didier PH Martin
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