Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful

Subject: Re: Formatting Objects considered harmful
From: Guy_Murphy@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:54:27 +0100
Hi.

And the reason why this "well known semantic XML application" shouldn't be
aural specific presentation objects is?

The problem with your solution is what needs to be "told" to the site
impared is often not the same as what is presented on screen. Therefore
unless you split visual presentation from aural presentation you cannot
actualy *cater* for the visualy impared, you can only give them the
unstrctured, often gibberish that is the aural interpretation of the Web
site.... ie. a second best often useless fallback.... anybody want to argue
that this is what the visualy impared deserve, or that infering aural
presentation from the bulk of Web sites meets their needs?

As for alternative solutions of a common doctype.... we're just looking at
HTML on steroids. HTML was always a fractured language, with varying
degrees of support and ill fitting semantics that by v4 had created
implimentation schisms all over the Net. Because it's semantics didn't fit
the job browser manufacterer started making up their own tags ad hoc. It
happened once, it will happen again.

Please people remember where we came from, and why we decided XML would be
desirable in the first place. What more pointless exercise could we engage
in that put all the time and effort into XML just to wind up back with
HTML?

Cheers

     Guy.





xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on 04/27/99 09:40:18 PM

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




On Tue, 27 Apr 1999, James Clark wrote:

True. The suggested solution to this problem is that instead of
transforming AXML (arbitrary XML) to FOs, you transform AXML to a
recognised and well known semantic XML application (most probably
XHTML), and style that using CSS.
The well known semantic XML application could be some document type
that does not exist yet. Its authors would have to invest time into
making various stylesheets for that document type, just as browser
authors at the moment have to carefully design stylesheets for XHTML
in their media.






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