W3C

Submission request to W3C

W3C Staff Comment


We, Hewlett-Packard Company, hereby submit to the Consortium the following specification comprising the document(s) linked below:

  1. Adding Style and Behavior to XML Pages with a dash of Spice

which is referred to as "the submission". We request the submission be known as the "Spice" submission.

Abstract

CSS is proving to be an easy-to-learn, effective approach for styling HTML pages. With a few simple extensions, ECMAScript becomes a powerful and easy-to-learn way to style XML pages using extensible CSS rules together with scripted flow objects. The approach doesn't rely on prior knowledge of the meaning of style properties, or on predefined flow objects.

To encourage interoperability, URLs are used to name libraries that support a given set of flow objects and style properties. Each library can be implemented in different ways according to the needs of each platform. Flow objects can be implemented in Java, ActiveX or even ECMAScript. CSS flow objects are supported via a standard library.

Spice leverages ongoing W3C work on CSS and DOM for the syntax of style rules, the properties of standard flow objects and the means for accessing and manipulating the document parse tree.

Intellectual Property Rights

Hewlett-Packard Company agrees not to assert any Patent Claim against any third-party arising from the use, manufacture, sale, distribution, or implementation of any portion of any product, method, or procedure which is necessary to implement Spice. Patent Claim means claim(s) of a patent or patent application which are owned or controlled by Hewlett-Packard Company that must be infringed in order to make, use or implement a product, method, or procedure that implements Spice.

Spice means Spice as initially submitted and/or adopted by the W3C or equivalent standards body. Spice does not include subsequent versions adopted by the standards bodies unless such subsequent version is again submitted by Hewlett-Packard Company.

A condition of Hewlett-Packard Company agreeing to not assert Patent Claims against any third-party is that such third-party agree in return not to assert against Hewlett-Packard Company any claim(s) of a patent or patent application which are owned or controlled by such third-party that must be infringed in order to make, use or implement a product, method, or procedure that implements Spice.

Hewlett-Packard Company expressly reserves all other rights it may have in the material and subject matter of this contribution.

This contribution is supplied on an "as is" basis with no Warranty. HP and its suppliers make no express warranty, whether written or oral, with respect to this product. HP and its suppliers DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: IN NO EVENT SHALL HP OR HP SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.

Names

N/A.

Specification

The submission may distributed within the membership of the W3C free of any fee.

The submission may be distributed publicly free of any fee.

Implementation

The following points should be noted as regards licensable technology involved in any third party implementations of the technology specified in the submission: There are no known issues at this time beyond typical platform- and implementation-dependent software engineering.

Suggested action

We suggest that the Consortium evaluate this proposal as part of the XSL style sheet discussion and/or working group once one has formed.

The proposal leverages the Consortium's existing and future work on Cascading Style Sheets, which provides the syntax for style rules and the properties for standard flow objects. It leverages W3C's work on the Document Object Model for the means for accessing and manipulating the document parse tree.

Resources

Hewlett-Packard Company is willing to commit resources to the further development of this specification and will make available a trial implementation to assist in its evaluation.

Change control

Should any changes be required to the document, we would expect future versions to be produced by W3C process.

Contact

Inquiries from the public or press about this submission should be directed to:

Robert Stevahn, +1 208 346 4787, < rstevahn@boi.hp.com>

Submitted

this 3rd day of February, 1998,
Hewlett-Packard Company