xml-dev - Re: Announcement: DocZilla Preview and all-new Demo Kit

[Michael Leventhal <mlelist@citec.fi>]

Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
> At 2:22 PM +0200 2/15/99, Mirja Hukari wrote:
> >
> >DocZilla is based on Netscape's Mozilla open-source project.
> >It uses CSS to render XML and SGML directly and also supports
> >the DOM accessed through JavaScript.
> 
> Mozilla's been able to render XML+CSS for several months. What does
> Doczilla do that Mozilla doesn't? Why fork the tree here?

I'm one of DocZilla developers.

It is true that Mozilla has been able to render XML+CSS
for several months, after a fashion, but it is also true that:

1.  Mozilla is more-or-less in a permanent state of being
    broken so very many people have not been able to get
    it to work to actually see XML+CSS.

2.  Display of XML documents is not a priority in the main
    line of Mozilla development, at least not up until now.
    As far as I know DocZilla is the only Mozilla project
    focusing on XML (and SGML).  We therefore have the
    comprehensive body of material to show what XML, CSS
    and the DOM can do.  Everywhere else in the XML world
    this seems often to still be rather poorly understood.
    So this is "show me" stuff which is not available with
    straight Mozilla at the moment.  There are a dozen or 15
    basically point-and-click demos nicely packaged.

But to actually answer your questions ...  The second one first -
we are not forking the tree.  Mozilla has a COM-based component
architecture which enables us to add stuff which works with the
mainline, not fork.  We are using all the mainline and adding stuff
that will not go into Navigator 5 and some stuff that will never
go into any Navigator.

Not all of it is in the Preview yet, actually it is pretty old
code now because Mozilla is in such a tumulutous state right
now, but the value-added-to-Mozilla stuff includes or will
include:  SGML, structured search, handling of very large documents
through our own fragment-capable parser, dynamic generation of
hypertext TOCs, CALS tables, HyTime links, TEI extended pointers,
CGM, many other graphics formats, application packages (scripts,
stylesheets) for specific DTDs and types of applications (IETM,
Help, for two examples).  OK, is it enough?!

Cheers,

Michael Leventhal

Architecture/Development
CITEC

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