Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful

Subject: Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful
From: Guy_Murphy@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 11:20:21 +0100
Cheap shot Hakon. I've talked at length in other posts about other
presentational objects.

If you want the issue reinterated, my stance is thus.

You have less chance than a snowball at a BBQ in hell of interpreting
auraly a graphicaly orientated site.

If aural inference of large number of websites is a mess, it is not useful
and will simply not be used.

If we define aural presentation objects that can be used along side or in
place of FOs, then thay can usefuly convey a message to listeners and will
be used.

Aural and visual presentations are very very different. The needs of both
are different, and I see *no* good arguement for mixing the two. As a Web
designer I have been experimenting with aural presentation, and have been
pushing my product manager to include aural presentation, and voice
regognition into a large intranet app (I have recently had the go ahead), I
have absolutely no intention of muddling aural and visual presentation code
together, the result would be a mess.

What we need is the ability to faciliate...

<aural:sentence>
     Hi. Presented here is an image of a sunsetting over a forest canopy as
viewed from above. A flcok of elegent birds cross the suns face, and
     we see a river with the suns bronze refelction winding through the
forrest.
</aural:sentence>
<aural:sentence>
     Your navigation options ar as follows, please state clearly the option
you require.
</aural:sentence>
<aural:group>
     <aural:sentence>
          Front Page
     </aural:sentence>

     ...and so on...
</aural:group>
<aural:sentence>
     If you reuire explanation of an option please say
<aural:stress>HELP</aural:stress> followed by the option. If you wish
     to hear the options again please say <aural:stress>REPEAT
OPTIONS</aural:stress>
</aural:sentence>

...Now I'm not making any arguement over the best aural semantics to use
(the above are off the top of my head, and pretty awful), what I am
suggestion is with XSL and presentation objects we can start to adress
these issues in ways that simply aren't open to us with HTML. What if we
are using vector graphics for out Web site? With aural POs we can address
this issue, with aural inference from HTML we are hopelessly lost.

Cheers

     Guy.





xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on 04/25/99 10:51:39 PM

To:   xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc:    (bcc: Guy Murphy/UK/MAID)
Subject:  Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful




Guy_Murphy wrote:
 > If the semantics used are not free, then using FOs gives a company a
safe
 > wall here, a semantic firewall if you like.
"semantic firewall" is a useful term.
 > In many cases, it simply will not be relevent. And the end user will not
 > care. All they will care about is what's infront of their eyes.
Your last sentence nicely outlines why XFO will become a problem for
non-visual users.
-h&kon
H?kon Wium Lie             http://www.operasoftware.com/people/howcome
howcome@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                      simply a better browser


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