xml-dev - Re: Why I dislike CSS

["Sebastian Rahtz" <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>]

Simon St.Laurent writes:
 > I can't use a validating XML parser to verify that my XSLT is correct,
 > except inasfar as it is well-formed, either.  XSLT's design bascially makes
 > such verification impossible

That's very harsh. The RenderX work shows that you can go a long way
with DTDs, and I am sure something like Schematron could provide an
excellent XSLFO validator.

 > CSS isn't 'part of the family' because it was around long before XSL, and
 > was basically ahead of the curve as far as convinving HTML developers that
 > separating style from content was a good idea.
Shame it didn't have that effect, then :-}

 > I really dislike being forced to use XSL, but figure that the perpetual
 > delays on XSL-FOs might spare me from having to use a grotesquely clunky
 > language to solve the kinds of simple work that CSS does very elegantly.

So, what *do* you use for Amy's Mom and Pop printing work? You have a
CSS implementation that does Word-standard pagination?

 > So apart from the fact that CSS isn't XML, it seems to fit your needs.  Why
 > not do a simple bit of XML-izing? 

Thats exactly what she did, didnt she? and she ended up with what
looks to me like a subset of XSL FO. Which seems to prove to me that
the XSL FO *do* follow the CSS work?


Sebastian


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