Re: Venting

[David LeBlanc <whisper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:51 PM 2/11/99 -0500, you wrote:
International layout is on the way - see
http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-i18n-format/. 

Yet another addition to the cavelcade of CSS reccomendations? I think one
well wrought reccomendation is better.

>And honestly, why are footnotes and margin notes really the domain of the
>W3C?  What do these ancient forms have to do with the Web?

These "ancient forms" are things that improve readability and/or aesthetics
of a visual document whether on paper or phospher. I look foreward to when
a well designed "page" on the screen has all the flexibility and stylistic
capabilities of dead tree media. I prefer my trees growing in an upright
and leafy condition, producing oxygen and absorbing greenhouse gases.

>I'll stick to a lightweight and very flexible wheel that works, rather than
>waiting for an over-wrought and extraordinarily pondrous device, thank you.  
>

I'm impressd with your ability to determine that FO's will be over-wrought
and extraordinarily ponderous given the very preliminary nature of that
part of the XSL spec. At a minimum, I think XSL FO's will be far more
approachable and usable by mere mortals then DSSSL. (Oh yes, and
IMPLEMENTABLE!!)

>Simon St.Laurent
>XML: A Primer / Building XML Applications (April)
>Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies
>http://www.simonstl.com

Excuse me if this sounds a bit inflamatory - it's not meant to be at all.
I'm saving up my flames for some people who thing nroff is a great markup
language for the next century and that X?L is yet another "silly rip-off".

Sincerely,

Dave LeBlanc


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