Re: [docbook] Whatever happened too CSS+XML?

["Steven T. Hatton" <hattons@globalsymmetry.com>]

On Friday 11 November 2005 04:16 pm, Jirka Kosek wrote:
> Steven T. Hatton wrote:
> > the driving force that determines which way the technology goes.  The
> > response that the browsers don't support it, so it can't be done isn't a
> > valid argument.
>
> So you think really that people will be satisfied with documents where:
>
> * are no links
> * are no images
> * are no tables
> * ... and dozen of other features
>
> With just XML+CSS you can not achieve things which I mentioned above. By
> achieve I mean that it will work at least in a mainstream browsers like
> IE, Mozilla and Opera.

I can't speak for all three browsers, but I believe you could accomplish this 
with Mozilla using only XML and CSS.  It might take a few lines of JavaScript 
which can be applied (IIRC) using CSS.  But I did not intend that all of this 
could be accomplished using only CSS and XML.  I specifically stated that 
XSLT has a role in all of this.

> I will celebrate day when common browsers will be able to display
> DocBook XML directly, styled with CSS and with working links, images and
> tables. But until this happen (read "for the next ten years") I will
> downconvert DocBook to good old HTML for crappy browsers.

Obviously you are willing to put some degree of effort into guiding the 
technology, so I can't accuse you of complete indifference or apathy.  What 
I'm trying to say is that there is a reasonably clear path to a better way of 
doing things. If people don't push for these things, and that means, to some 
extent they try things which are likely to fail, and report the failure to 
the browser developers (as well as other toolmakers) the technology will not 
move forward.

> I'm not saying that I'm happy with this situation, but here we are.
> Pretending that some technology works, while it is not true is the worst
> thing you can do for such technology. Premature and unsuccessful launch
> is not good marketing strategy IMHO. Play with this stuff in your lab,
> persuade browser vendors and let us know once technology is ready for a
> real use.

How, 'bout I forego the latter.

Steven