Re: HTML & CSS

[Mark Baker <mbaker -at- OMNIMARK -dot- COM>]

Sven-Ola Tuecke wrote


>mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com (Mark Baker) wrote:
>
>[---snip---]
>>(c) Store your pages in XML or SGML and write a script to detect the
user's
>>browser and output the appropriate CSS/HTML for each browser. This way
>>authors don't have to worry about browser differences and when a new
browser
>>is released you only have to update your script to support the new
browser,
>>not edit any of your data. What a dream come true.
>
>Maybe your dream turns out to be a nightmare:
>If you read the IE5.0 specs, you detect a new
>style sheet language, the development team
>focuses on: XSL. XSL is not CSS or DSSSL. XSL
>is a fine idea, but it may be a new and strange
>concept for layout oriented DTPers...


This is exactly the situation in which the system I describe is most
advantageous. With a server-side program creating the final formatting code
on the fly, you can adapt to any browser innovation. If the browser wants
XSL, fine, your server-side program generates the appropriate XSL code.
Whatever new browser technology cones along, you just update your program to
serve it the encoding it expects.

The important concept here is future proofing. We have all gone through the
pain of version upgrades and software changes that made it difficult to use
older files. Now the acceptable delivery formats are so splintered and
changing so quickly that it is no longer tenable to create in any one final
delivery format. You need to future-proof you data by adopting a neutral
format and converting to presentation formats as needed. This includes
converting to the browser flavor of the month on the fly as people visit
your website.

---
Mark Baker
Manager, Technical Communication
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com

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