[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

RE: XSLT vs. CSS (Re: Indexing)


xslt for legal documents
I understand the example.  I don't accept the 
certainty of it.

I don't know who Jacobsen is, but regardless of 
specification or audience, the author that requires 
fidelity to the document-as-sent has to use a 
format built for that, e.g, PDF.  Legal documents 
don't account for the judge's spectacles, 
so the judge has legal secretaries, CEOs have 
executive assistants (the egoBoo term for 
secretary), and so on.  In other words, the 
webwonk can't require the user to be 
in charge except insofar as to ensure 
some means is available when they are.  CSS or XSLT can be 
one of those means until the rule is that 
the document cannot be modified as a side 
effect or direct effect of the means of 
transmission.  

That doesn't mean people 
won't do as you say and build an unreadable 
page, or use PDF when XML or HTML plus a 
stylesheet would be more effective for a 
greater number of people.  Experience says 
they will.  What technology has to account 
for is the exception to its own developers 
worldview or experience.  PDF is a means 
to do something quite specific: FFF.  It 
can also be cheaper to produce but that is 
a local effect and choice.   I note that 
PDF is zoomable, fonts are specifiable, and 
nothing stops an author from building a document 
that is WAI-compatible.

The meatspace world is and always will be at 
least one order of magnitude more complicated 
than any artifact of it (eg, the web).  
Cherry rules made by designers with regards 
to dominance in a communications relationship 
will fail on occasion with certainty.  Let 
both buyer and seller beware.  I read Nielsen's 
pages on best design like I viewed Pat Paulsen's 
run for the US Presidency:
 
satirical comedy with flashes of insight. 

If one is too young and/or not an American, for Paulsen, see 
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, circa 1968.

len

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Pawson [mailto:dpawson@n...]

At 12:30 10/07/2003 -0500, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>My point here is that arguing for complete author
>control will push one away from XML anyway.  User
>control pushes toward it.  If I am sending XML
>to an XSLT-enabled receiver, my control is pretty
>much zero, so trust.  If I send CSS inlined, I have
>more control but not perfect because it is not
>hard to edit a file or even XSLT it.  If I send it with
>a reference to CSS, I am back to the same problem
>as with XSLT:  trust.  I can't be sure what is in
>the CSS with that name at the receiver.  The only way
>I can send it without having to trust the receiver is to use a
>FFF (final fixed format).


\one of the reasons behind css was to allow the CASCADE.
WAI says the user disposes, the author proposes.
e.g. Len wants it 4pt, pale blue.
   I can't read it, so my cascad overrides Lens and I
get 16point black. That's accessibility?
   Bottom line is, I guess. The need to get content transitted
is even more important than the authors desire for it to be 'just so'?
   If I can't read it, I can't say wow, look what  a good job Lens made
   of this content. I just dump it if I can't read it.
   How many web sites have you come across where the authors
are just *so* desperate to cram as much in as possible that little
is legible? This on the assumption that it just *must* be on the front page?
   Jacobson was pretty smart IMHO.
Yes/No?

PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!

Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced!

Buy Stylus Studio Now

Download The World's Best XML IDE!

Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today!

Don't miss another message! Subscribe to this list today.
Email
First Name
Last Name
Company
Subscribe in XML format
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
 

Stylus Studio has published XML-DEV in RSS and ATOM formats, enabling users to easily subcribe to the list from their preferred news reader application.


Stylus Studio Sponsored Links are added links designed to provide related and additional information to the visitors of this website. they were not included by the author in the initial post. To view the content without the Sponsor Links please click here.

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Trademarks
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member
Stylus Studio® and DataDirect XQuery ™are products from DataDirect Technologies, is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation, in the U.S. and other countries. © 2004-2013 All Rights Reserved.