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IMO, HTML/CSS have always been missing a middle layer. It really should be: - HTML for pure information - Something else (template/view?) for layout and (possi
by romaniv 10y ago
IMO, HTML/CSS have always been missing a middle layer. It really should be:
- HTML for pure information
- Something else (template/view?) for layout and (possibly) forms
- CSS for styling in terms of fonts, colors, etc.
This would easily handle layouts, but it would also have some NLS-like capabilities where you could switch from one way of presenting information to another without changing the actual docment.
- svachalek 10y agoThis was the role that XSL tried to fill but it never caught on. Part of the reason is that it's still very dependent on what information is in the source document; if it's not there you can't lay it out, and if you don't need it then it was a big waste of database time. This ends up reversing the dependency, so the contents of your "pure information" layer end up depending on what your "layout" layer needs, and in the end the difference between the layers is only nominal.
- romaniv 10y agoXSL was not envisioned as a middle layer between HTML and CSS. Plus, it was a quintessential design by committee, trying to cater to a bunch of conflicting use cases with no overall vision or conceptual elegance.