Re: [docbook] strict versus transitional XHTML tables [was: DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 18 Mar 2003]

[Tobias Reif <tobiasreif at pinkjuice dot com>]

Paul Grosso wrote:

> We're comparing having an author write:
>
>   <td role="glump">
>
> versus
>
>   <td bgcolor="green">
>
> I'm amazed people are arguing that it makes more sense for
> the author to do the former.

In most cases, it makes *a lot* more sense to write

  .glimp {background-color: pink}

than to change bgcolor="green" to bgcolor="pink" in 5000 thousand instances.

It also makes more sense than writing:

  .green-background {background-color: blue}

Document authors and designers often are not the same, so this happens.

> Be that as it may, in the latter case, the DocBook stylesheets
> can pick up the bgcolor attribute and use it to generate either:
>
>   XSL-FO:  <fo:table-cell background-color="green">
>
>   XSL-HTML:  <td bgcolor="green">  if you don't mind transitional HTML
> or
>              <td style="background-color: green">  if you want to use
> CSS
>
> But in the former case, I don't see how this is going to work.

  <td role="glump">

to

  <td class="glump">

then

  .glump{/* any styles */}


>> td.glump {background-color: green}
>>
> And where in one's DocBook document does the author put that?

Nowhere. Put it in a .css file.

> And if they can't put it somewhere, how does the author get
> green background when they say role="glump"?

The author writes

  role="exception"

then he or the designer writes, in some .css file:

  td.exception {background-color: green}

One week later, he or the designer can simply do

  td.exception {background-color: pink}

thus changing the styling of thousands of table cells, by changing one 
single word or line, instead of having to change the DocBook code of 
thousands of table cells (and re-running the transformation).

> And what do you propose to do about XSL-FO?

FO XSLTs provide a basic default styling. The designer then extends 
the/his DocBook to FO XSLTs (*stylesheets*) with his styles, eg "match 
table cells with role exception and generate FO code making their 
background color pink".

But again: if you simply think that it has enough advantages to choose 
the XHTML Transitional table model, then go with it. Authors are then 
free to choose their subset; they don't have to use presentational features.

Tobi

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