RE: CSS and XSL

["Jelks Cabaniss" <jelks@xxxxxxxx>]

Oren Ben-Kiki wrote:

> CSS allows attaching style information to XML trees using the following:
>
> 1. A <style> tag whose contents is a stylesheet. This stylesheet isn't XML,
> but in CSS syntax.

Where is "a <style> tag" specified *anywhere* for XML?  The only published means
I've seen of attaching style information to XML is at:

	http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-xml-stylesheet

which uses a PI mechanism (the end result resembling that of LINKing CSS
stylesheets in HTML).

Perhaps you're thinking of HTML 4.0, which *does* have a STYLE element for
*embedded* (i.e, in-the-document-itself) CSS.  Has there been any published
discussion of using embedded CSS in XML?  I personally haven't seen it.

> 2. A "style" attribute which may be attached to any element and which
> contains a complex CSS syntax set of attributes.

I don't really know what you mean by a "complex CSS syntax set of attributes".
Doesn't have to be any more complex than the number of styles you're applying:

	<p style="color: red">Howdy!</p>.

is not all that complex.

	<p style="font: 12pt garamond, serif; color: red">Howdy!</p>.

is a little more complex -- for obvious reasons.

Anyway, inline CSS is mostly used for on-the-fly authoring, where it might not
be considered worthwhile for a one-time effect ("Do we really want to declare an
ID or CLASS in an embedded or linked stylesheet for this one word in red?").

Note: while we have been discussing here inline-CSS-in-XML as if it were a fait
accompli, and while IE5b2 supports it (see
http://cpcug.org/user/jelks/XML/xcss.xml if you're using it), again, I haven't
seen any published discussion of using it.

> 3. Some supporting attributes such as "class" which again might be attached
> to any XML tag.

I also have seen no published W3C discussions on using CLASS and/or ID
mechanisms a la HTML 4 in XML.  Presumably these things are being thrashed out
behind closed doors, but we mortals ain't privy to such highfalutin' venues.

(If any or all of these things -- embedded CSS in XML, inline CSS in XML, and
the use of CLASS and ID mechanisms for applying CSS styles to XML -- have been
publicly discussed, I would greatly appreciate a pointer to the URL/list ...)

> ...
> The advantages are:
>
> - Using XML syntax for all of CSS.

There goes the neighborhood.

> ...
>
> - Ease of generating CSS from XSL. XSS would be XML, and CSS isn't.

Thank goodness.

> - Separating content from presentation taken one step further - separate
> content, from structure, from style. Transforming content to structure would
> be done by XTL; styling the result would be done by XSS.

What does "transforming content to structure" mean?  Sounds like ASCII-to-Markup
...


/Jelks


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