Re: Style sheets for HTML

Rob Raisch (raisch@ora.com)
Sun, 13 Jun 1993 13:51:46 -0400 (EDT)


On Fri, 11 Jun 1993, Dave_Raggett wrote:

> I read your style sheet proposal with great interest, and will add the
> "style" attribute to the LINK tag attribute definition in the DTD.

Cool.

> Have you considered allowing multiple stylesheets to cover different uses?
> This would mean that you could specify one style for printing and another for
> online use. You might want to go further and distinguish between X windows,
> PC's and palmtops.
>
> My suggestion is that the LINK element takes another attribute which specifies
> the intended media, e.g.
>
> <LINK style="http://ora.com/styles/paper_a4" media="paper/A4">
> <LINK style="http://ora.com/styles/paper_B5" media="paper/B5">
> <LINK style="http://ora.com/styles/xwindows" media="xwindows">
>
> Multiple such elements could be included in each HTML+ document.
>
> Note that the media attribute value can encode further parameters - paper
> size in the above example. By defining the media attribute as taking a CDATA
> value, we can allow for new types of media without needing to change the DTD.
>
> Comments please?

Hmmmm.... I would rather carry this information in the stylesheet itself.
I seems rather wasteful to me to have 5 or 6 media links in the same
document.

I would suggest though that this is not of general use. The stylesheet,
as proposed is really a collection of hints or suggestions for the
renderer to make decisions to best represent the content of a document in
a style which most meets the original intent of the author.

As such, there are general regions of responsibility which I feel we can
suggest complience with, (fonts, indents, etc.), and other more specific
areas which quickly become "a maze of twisty little suggestions, all alike."
I do not think that we really need nor want to specify this to the level
of the actual media used to realize the document.

I believe that it is up to the individual renderer to make the "proper
decisions" regarding the differences in printing in phosphors or ink, and
how a document looks on different page sizes.

Comments? Am I off base here?

</rr>