xml-dev - RE: xslv updated

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

> Gregg writes:

>I wasn't there, but my understanding is that DSSSL was an attempt to
improve
>upon FOSI.

Paul Grosso would have the facts.  I was told that FOSI was a stopgap 
in recognition that DSSSL would be a long and very hard design task, so 
FOSI ("Formatting Output Specification Instance" as I recall) was to 
be the citable workable thing until the real thing was done.  As with other 
stopgaps, it outlived its projected usefulness.  Remember, when HTML  
emerged, a LOT of efforts went to the back burner. Companies started 
running out of heavily funded tasks that weren't web-centric.  XML 
wasn't just "get SGML on the Web" but also "let's get marketshare before 
the funding goes away". :-) Once this was done, it became appropriate 
to re-open advanced work.  That can't be done without competing with 
other newer efforts (FOs are older than CSS), nor can it be done 
without looking at the changes and or advances of the new environments 
and systems (eg, the WWW).  At that point, it is time to look at the 
goals and adjust.

>> (As for no quality typesetting being done with DSSSL (or near
>> dialects),
>> I am sure that Uniscope in Tokyo had good material to disprove that. I
>> have seen it.)

>What's their market share?  ;)

QED.

> E.g. footnotes can be anywhere in
> the source, but they have to end up in the right place after composition.
I
> don't think you can do that reliably without composing and recomposing the
> whole thing.

Which comes around to a point:  the end use may determine the process and 
the process will have requirements that dictate the order (binding of 
addresses, composing change bars, etc), so in the specification of the 
goals (back to Amy), if these are not sensitive to the final product 
and perhaps the process order, it is possible for the project to 
go off the rails quickly.   In light of that, take a look at what 
CSS sets out to achieve, its systemic requirements, then ask if it 
is a good solution.  It is.  Now go back to XSLFOs and ask what they 
are intended to achieve.

len

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