Re: An open challenge: HTML 4.0 tables

["Stephen J. Tinney" <stinney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vivek Agrawala <vivek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>Jon Bosak wrote:
>> 
>> The W3C XML WG finds itself needing a table model for its
>> specifications.  Since we're hoping that our spec DTD can be used for
>> other W3C specs, we would like to get this right.  Problem is,
>> implementing a general table model in DSSSL is a real technical
>> challenge.  The only one I know of in the public domain is the one
>> that Anders Berglund wrote for my DocBook style sheet, which is now
>> being maintained in much better shape than I wrote it by Norm Walsh.
>> But for W3C specs we want to use the HTML 4.0 table model, which as it
>> happens is a pretty good one.
>> 
>> Here's a direct challenge to all on this list who consider themselves
>> to be DSSSL experts: to whom shall the honor fall of being the first
>> to contribute a DSSSL implementation of HTML 4.0 tables?
>
>I don't really expect to have the time to do this, but
>would like to find out more about what is involved.
>
>Could someone with a better understanding explain what the
>problems are?  And, what should the DSSSL implementation
>output -- RTF or something else? 

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?

 Steve

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