Re: Netscape 6 lack of XSL support

Play the video

Subject: Re: Netscape 6 lack of XSL support
From: "John E. Simpson" <simpson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 08:51:44 -0400

At 06:48 AM 04/06/2000 -0500, Mark Volkmann wrote:

> Rather than supporting the formatting of XML documents through CSS1,
Microsoft has chosen to focus on formatting through XSL. As Tim Bray, a
co-editor of the XML specification has noted:

> "Microsoft's XSL efforts are very impressive, but (readers will pardon us
being something of a broken record on this subject) XSL is in the future."

> He further adds, "It seems obvious to me that for anyone who wants to
deploy XML in production mode right now, XML + CSS is the way to go."

I think these are absurd statements! CSS is far too limited to use for
presenting XML documents. It has zero transformation capabilities! Without
the "content" feature of CSS2 it cannot add new content to the output. It
can't sort. It can't reorder content. I've got to wonder if Tim Bray really
said that last line, "XML + CSS is the way to go".

Yes, he really said that. It's a little misleading though for Netscape to be reproducing the remark verbatim, without saying what "right now" means. Tim's comment actually appeared in an article written for xml.com in October *1998*, reviewing the *original* IE5 support for XML-related technology.

At that time it was (IMO) indeed right to say what he said. And in some ways it's still right (although I agree with you on the superiority of XSLT): implementations of the *display* (i.e. formatting objects) standard are still over the horizon. It'd be a boon if browsers supported the years-old CSS better than they do. (Although Opera and Mozilla are doing a good job with it.) Even right now in mid-2000, it'd be great to have both transformation capabilities and a fully-implemented display standard. ================================================================ John E. Simpson | "After they make styrofoam, what do http://www.flixml.org | they ship it in?" (Steven Wright) simpson@xxxxxxxxxxx |

XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list

Current Thread

Netscape 6 lack of XSL support
- Mark Volkmann - Thu, 6 Apr 2000 06:48:18 -0500
  - Didier PH Martin - Thu, 6 Apr 2000 08:27:44 -0400
  - Eric van der Vlist - Thu, 06 Apr 2000 14:29:55 +0200
    - Omar López Ruiz - Thu, 06 Apr 2000 16:24:59 +0200
  - John E. Simpson - Thu, 06 Apr 2000 08:51:44 -0400 <=
  - Louis-Dominique Dubeau - 06 Apr 2000 09:33:35 -0400
    - Henri Yandell - Thu, 6 Apr 2000 15:49:41 +0100 (BST)
  - <Possible follow-ups>
  - Linda van den Brink - Thu, 6 Apr 2000 15:19:17 +0200
  - Timm, Sean - Thu, 6 Apr 2000 07:27:42 -0600

<- Previous	Index	Next ->
Re: Netscape 6 lack of XSL support, Omar López Ruiz	Thread	Re: Netscape 6 lack of XSL support, Louis-Dominique Dube
Re: Printing XML reports, Nikolai Grigoriev	Date	RE: more things CSS can't do that X, FINLEY, Mike
	Month

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

RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3

XML Editor - Download a 15 Day Free Trial Now >

See What's New in Stylus Studio >

Buy Stylus Studio - XML Editor - Now >