Re: [ubl-fpsc] Fwd: RE: UBL 0p70 comment "c.1" regarding rendering of UBL instances

[Chin Chee-Kai <cheekai@softml.net>]

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, G. Ken Holman wrote:

>>>Many businesses care about the way their business documents look and go to
>>>a lot of trouble employing graphic artists and designers to make sure that
>>>their paper documents present the image they want. What this means for
>>>UBL, is that the creater of an XML Document might want to be able to
>>>suggest to a recipient that a particular stylesheet be used to view the
>>>document that makes the document viewable in the way the creater intended.

This reflects my view as well.  The way information is presented
on business documents is itself a part of the information being
presented.


>>>Some of the uses of this utility could be:
>>>1. By a SME who has no ERP or accounting system, who can view any UBL
>>>document they receive, perhaps by email.
>>>2. To browse archives of UBL documents on an ERP system
>>
>>I believe the objective of stylesheets is to render a document the way the
>>*recipient* intends, not the way the *sender* intends.  

Not quite, in the case of business documents.  Sender would not
want his/her own company logo to be minimized by the recipient 
below the page number at the bottom;  nor would sender wants,
for example, reference numbers be printed right-to-left because
recipient's system by default does that.  I don't think that
recipient-controlled presentation makes sense for UBL documents.
It could be a choice, but must not be the only choice.


>>To see information
>>the way the sender intends requires using a final-form technology ... the
>>most ubiquitous being PDF files.  The technology behind PDF files ensures
>>the objectives to be met for the sender are satisfied.

Yes, that pretty much is it, to use a prevalent and easily usable
final-form technology to do that.  PDF does more than just presenting
actually;  it prevents the recipient from arbitrarily re-orienting
the presentation component blocks within the document, whether
intentionally or because the system somehow defaults to that 
behavior.  Presentation as HTML could be another way, although
less "air-tight" than PDF.



Best Regards,
Chin Chee-Kai
SoftML
Tel: +65-6820-2979
Fax: +65-6743-7875
Email: cheekai@SoftML.Net
http://SoftML.Net/