Re: SGML/XML syntax for DSSSL

[Paul Prescod <papresco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Derek Denny-Brown wrote:
> I agree for the most part.  What I would like to see is a
> cross-over/cross-pollination of some of the DSSSL experts to the CSS
> effort.  If CSS and DSSSL could be aimed in such a way that CSS was a
> 'simplified' subset of DSSSL, using a similar/same model for the document
> display representation, then both camps would benefit.  

CSS concepts are already fairly hard to model in DSSSL and they will
probably be getting further away with each version. CSS's cascade is
just too bizarre in DSSSL terms. In CSS, you can specify that a
particular object is a blue list item, and I can specify that it is a
horizontal rule and our rules "compete" and to decide which the object
actually is: perhaps a blue horizontal rule. I don't know how to model
that in DSSSL.

It was thinking about a CSS-like DSSSL that started my train of thought
in both directions of an infix syntax and a declarative subset. But we
can't use CSS as it stands: we would have to make a DSSSL subset with
CSS syntax. CSS would continue to be used for HTML and where "cascading"
seems like a good idea (?) and DSSSL-simple would be used everywhere
else. The new CSS would have to be described from the ground up as a
subset of DSSSL so that it could "grow into" DSSSL instead of away from
it.

 Paul Prescod

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