Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful

Subject: Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful
From: Paul Prescod <paul@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 11:46:06 -0500
"John E. Simpson" wrote:
> 
> At 09:38 AM 4/18/99 -0500, Paul Prescod wrote:
> >So XFOTs have all of the costs and benefits of PDF -- except that XFOTs do
> >*not* require a plugin because their implementation is mandated by the
> >W3C. This is exactly Håkon's point: we are making it easier to use a
> >PDF-like language by mandating the implementation of a PDF-like language.
> >The "tools for easily creating that content" will presumably appear for
> >the same reason that tools for creating PDF exist.
> 
> But if a hypothetical tool vendor implemented semantics-free PDF-like FOs
> *without* the transformational component of XSL, wouldn't that depart from
> the W3C's "mandate"? (My reading of the XSL DTD says that an FO requires a
> transformational parent and can't be used on its own.)

We're talking about on the *generation* side. The XSL-WD does not and
cannot say that it is illegal to generate semantics-less FOs and attach a
stylesheet that does nothing except copy elements from the input to the
output verbatim. We could restrict the XSL features that make copying easy
but we cannot stop someone from making a stylesheet that maps MYFO:BLOCK
to FO:BLOCK "manually".

Once they've written that stylesheet (less than half day's work) they
don't have to worry about structure any more. Quark or MSWord can generate
the FO's more-or-less "directly" -- which is much easier than
reimplementing in terms of structure.
-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
 http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"The Excursion [Sport Utility Vehicle] is so large that it will come
equipped with adjustable pedals to fit smaller drivers and sensor 
devices that warn the driver when he or she is about to back into a
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