Re: XSL: XS-970522: Marginalia

[Chris Maden <crism@xxxxxxx>]

[Patrick Durusau]
> Just a note concerning the comment by Chris Maden <crism@xxxxxxx> on
> XS-970522:
> 
> >3.3 Marginalia
> 
> I take the question of need as not related to the usefulness of
> marginalia flow objects but why a minimally conforming application
> should include them. As an academic user of SGML and DSSSL in a
> publishing environment, I think marginalia flow objects would be
> most useful and should be included in minimally conforming
> applications. If I were concerned with less complex document styles
> I probably would be less certain that marginalia merit
> inclusion. ;-) I suspect that a majority of academics and publishers
> interested in these issues would also support the proposed inclusion
> of marginalia.

As with XML, I think that, for the initial specification, a minimal
list of necessary features should be specified.  I can certainly see
why marginalia would be *nice*.  I want to know why it is *necessary*,
now.  Can't information that would be marginalia on paper be presented
as footnotes for now, or as information revealed in a new window?  It
seems to me that marginalia support invokes non-linear processing,
since you have to synchronize two sets of information, making
implementation much more difficult.  For the same reason, I think
aligned-column should be left out of XSL 1.0, even though it is
mandated in DSSSL.

-Chris
-- 
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