[WEB4LIB] Re: CSS and XML

[Nancy Sosna Bohm]

XML pages display in IE5. I just tried opening 
http://www.ulink.net/plum/oldHSL/newbFic.xml in Netscape 4.61; first the 
browser attempted to open it in IE, then an error message was displayed 
indicating that the dtd could not be located. So, if your Intranet has been 
using XML, you must be using IE5.

At 11:55 AM 9/15/00 -0700, Thomas Dowling wrote:



> > I am unclear re. the relationship between XML and CSS.  I have built my
> > library's site using CSS and HTML but in the long run, XML may be the
>scripting
> > language of choice within the larger intranet environment of which our
>library
> > is a part, especially as this organization builds web pages and other
>electronic
> > resources that employ Dublin Core metadata.  My understanding is that a
>page
> > written with XML absolutely requires an accompanying style sheet for it
>to
> > display in browsers, but can that style sheet be CSS or is there a
>separate
> > XML-related style sheet used for this purpose?   Thanks for any
>insights.
> >
>
>XML is not a scripting language; it is a language for constructing
>document markup languages.
>
>Since XML allows authors to define their own structural document elements
>(say, "<author>" or "<LCSubjectHeading>"), browsers cannot be know in
>advance what a good default presentation is for all elements.  So it is
>necessary to use stylesheets to define the intended presentation.
>XML-aware browsers may have built-in stylesheets for some well known XML
>languages, like XHTML.
>
>CSS is one of two style languages people are using with XML; the other one
>is XSL.  Since CSS also works with current HTML browsers, it has gotten a
>lot more attention and a lot more people are familiar with it.  I know
>little about XSL, but it seems to be both much more powerful and much more
>complex than CSS, and has the potential to do much more than just apply
>formatting to a document.  Details at <URL:http://www.w3.org/Style/>.
>
>The first flavor of XML you use will probably by XHTML, which will let you
>use all three of the ways HTML uses to call CSS.  For other XML languages,
>the CSS2 spec suggests a processing instruction like:
>
>   <?XML:stylesheet type="text/css" href="bach.css"?>
>
>Dunno if that actually works, or with what browsers: let us know when you
>find out.  :-)
>
>Thomas Dowling
>OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
>tdowling at ohiolink.edu