Re: HTML is a formatting/UI language was: RE: Formatting Obj

Subject: Re: HTML is a formatting/UI language was: RE: Formatting Obj
From: Guy_Murphy@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 14:10:13 +0100
Hi Paul.

I broadly agree with the points you raise, areas where I differ are largely
a matter of personal taste, and these sorts of differences basically boil
down to individual developers prefered methodology.

I wanted to ask you further about your conclusion.

Don't we face here an issue whereby it would be mroe appropriate to have
either a different namespace for producing say aural "renderable" output
that might be produced along side the FOs, or the use of different
stylesheets for different media. Specifying a different stylesheet PI for
each media covered would seem to be best.

Now that we have managed to seperate data from presentation, able to
provide differing views of the data as appropriate, if we look for generic
catch-all presentation languages don't we run back into the arms of some of
the probelms we faced with HTML.... does pretty much everything, but
nothing very well?

As a side note.... most people browsing the Web are most concerned with the
appearence of the Web app they are using and the functionality provided....
not the source code used to render it, and I beleive that it is not worth
while sacrificing the functionality provided by clean domain specific FOs
(or other media specific objects), so that people have a better time of
viewing source. If one is that concerned about seeing the original data one
can go fetch it.

Continuing on from this point about availability of original data, I have
just come back from an eXcelon seminar, and one of the key concerned raised
was the fact that core data is exposed to the client... a lot of companies
do not want core data exposed directly to the client.... consider the
concept of data syphoning combined with Web crawlers, and it is easy to see
why this is a concern for companies.

It is also easy to forget that we will have XHTML, and we already have
XML+CSS, and nobody is suggesting that XSL is a direct competitor for these
across all solutions. It is likely that most Web sites will present in
either XHTML or XML+CSS. If presentation semantic is required as part of a
solution there are already means for implimenting this. If however this is
either not a concern, or the richist presentational expression possible is
a requisite, then I feel that FOs are absolutely the way to go, not a
watered down formatting semantic.

Cheers
     Guy.





xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on 04/19/99 10:28:17 PM

To:   xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc:    (bcc: Guy Murphy/UK/MAID)
Subject:  Re: HTML is a formatting/UI language was: RE: Formatting Obj





[SNIP]

I conclude that we need a language (FOs+semantics or HTML+style) that
supports non-graphical renditions of common information types.
--
 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
Toyota or some other object." -- Dallas Morning News

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