Re: <PAGE> proposal
Albert Lunde (Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu)
Fri, 22 Dec 1995 22:39:14 -0600 (CST)
> > This would extend the usefulness of HTML to include applications
> > where a document needs to be available in both srollable (WWW) and
> > non-scrollable (paper) versions with one source file (HTML) without the
> > author having to mainatain multiple source versions of the same document.
>
> Though the terms used have been different, all I've gathered so far is an
> argument that converting from a pageless model to a paged model somehow
> eases maintenance. But then, what's the *real* problem? If it's a question
> of having a single master source from which to produce target-specific or
> customized versions, some *other* SGML application could be the way to go.
> Roll your own DTD, and either use a revision control system with make, or
> generate output on the fly.
I kind of agree with the line of thought that says that it would
be better to put pagination control for a particular media in
style sheets. The general model of HTML is not trying to be
tied to a scrolling or paged display/media, it's trying to
represent text in a form that adapts to many media. Trying
to do things as if HTML was, say Quark Expess, gets into trouble fast.
If I wanted to adapt HMTL to paged output in particular, what I'd
want more than hard page breaks, would be conditional control of
where page breaks could occur. (So the results would make sense
in different font and paper sizes.)
I just looked, and this _has_ been addressed in the draft of CSS1
See:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/TR/WD-css1#page
--
Albert Lunde Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu