Cart
|
[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: FOs again
 From: Amy Lewis [mailto:amyzing@t...] First some assumptions. Thesis: XML, unlike its predecessor SGML, is most likely to be first encountered electronically, not hard copy. >> I guess you mean "XML content". Tendentious, but SGML is digital too. Also, and this is a real problem, the tacit assumption that all content now means "web content" is a road block to progress in some applications where the use of web tech but not the web is warranted. Thesis: XML, unlike HTML as practiced on the web, contains no implicit styling embedded in its tags (I'm thinking of things like lists, horizontal rules, and tables, which are at least as much stylistic tags as they are logical tags). >> Very likely to be wrong. This may be part of the myth of separation of content and format that XML "is about". XML doesn't care. It is more likely one will see these mixed in practice. >>As a result, if we have no style language, then initial encounters with XML are likely to be in raw form, which isn't acceptable. So: >>XHTML is XML. SVG is XML. X3D is XML. This is hard case to make if you look at real languages. 1. XSLFO should provide a complete set of styling tags suitable for control of character-mapped and pixel-mapped display devices >> Again, look at the target languages above. Are SVG or X3D content or style languages? Is XSLFO simply the text analog of these graphics style languages? 2. XSLFO should provide default styling, based on the display styling tags, for printed output. Minimum acceptable default is the equivalent of treating each page as a browser viewport (a sort of screenshot). >> That's better in the first sentence. I sort of doubt the second sentence holds across devices. 3. XSLFO should provide additional control, which should be cascadable from author to viewer, for better control of styling, but should treat high-end fine control of printed output as a separate topic, perhaps treated as a separate specification (but preferably sharing the same namespace). >> Ok. 4. XSLFO should provide default styling, based on the display styling tags, for aural output. Fine control in this area should be left to specifications devoted to the problem (perhaps simply by providing a standard linking mechanism for the alternate "display" format). >> Again, aural, animation, where do you stop? 5. XSLFO should be completed as soon as is humanly possible, in order to be deployed within the first-generation Xweb, rather than having to achieve penetration into a welter of conflicting deployed solutions. >> Xweb? Ick. Scully and Mulder to the rescue... The truth is out there somewhere. Let's hunt it down an kill it quickly! 6. Core XSLFO should be as simple to use as possible, with an understandable, brief specification, and hooks to allow further development in any desired direction. >> Sounds Good. Sounds like the original spec for the FOSI. DSSSL got as complex as it did as the designers kept uncovering layer upon layer of requirements for print. To make this simple, I think you will have to target a very specific set of print display and rendering goals. Summary: keep it simple, finish it soon, and focus on display on electronic devices with default behavior for other display types; make it extensible to provide finer control both on display (as desired) and on other devices. >> Ok. We tried this in VRML and there are some surprises for you in the monitor models, color models, etc. Tests to prove conformance are necessary so make a deal with NIST very early. The work on FOs is probably one of the hardest to undertake in the XML family of languages. Len Bullard Intergraph Public Safety clbullar@i... http://fly.hiwaay.net/~cbullard/lensongs.ram Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti. Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h *************************************************************************** This is xml-dev, the mailing list for XML developers. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo@x...&BODY=unsubscribe%20xml-dev List archives are available at http://xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ *************************************************************************** 
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! 
Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|
|||||||||
