Re: CSS and XSL?

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:27 PM 6/11/99 +0800, James Tauber wrote:
>My reading of the XSL spec suggests that XSL FOs very much build on CSS
>and go to great lengths to use the same vocabulary.
>
>I don't know what has given people the impression that this is not the
>case.

The latest draft definitely moves FOs toward a CSS-based vocabulary.
Statements like that below are encouraging:

>XSL builds on the prior work on Cascading Style Sheets [CSS2]and the 
>Document Style Semantics and Specification Language [DSSSL]. XSL 
>provides the most of the formatting objects and properties of CSS. 
>(Conceptually, the formatting objects of CSS are indicated by using 
>the "display" property of CSS on some existing source element.) Over 
>90 percent of the properties in XSL are properties that are already 
>defined in CSS. This set of properties (and formatting objects), 
>however, is not sufficient to accomplish all the goals of XSL. In 
>particular, this version of XSL introduces a model for pagination 
>and layout that can be extended, in a straightforward way, to page 
>structures beyond the simple page models described in this specification. 

However, such explicit claims of compatibility are a _recent_ development,
something that hasn't yet been reflected in the rhetoric of XSL's
supporters. After the many blasts on the CSS display model on this list
about a year ago, I'm impressed that someone had their head together enough
to make sure this happened.

A public statement from the W3C that CSS and XSL vocabularies are to be
reconciled would make this convergence much more believable, and might cool
down certain controversies.  It's nice that XSL is finally recognizing that
CSS has a heritage worth inheriting; it's troubling that the relationship
between the two specs remains murky.

Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer / Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical (July)
Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies
http://www.simonstl.com


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