[widgets] Applying Stylesheets to Resources

Hi, folks-

I've meant to mention this for a while (a couple years), and it's 
probably too late, but I thought I'd drop it in for future consideration.

One odd part of the separation of content and presentation is that a 
stylesheet is applied to a file by including a link to the stylesheet in 
the target file.  That is totally backward.

It's understandable in the historical context, because the file that was 
being navigated to was the HTML page, and there was no other way to 
associate or allow discovery of other applicable stylesheets.  Widgets, 
because it defines a manifest, could correct this, if the author wants 
that option.

I would like the manifest to add a linking element that points to a 
stylesheet and to its target resource (an HTML or SVG file, say), and 
says, apply this stylesheet to this file.

This would allow the author to reuse and repurpose a target resource 
without touching that file itself.  Mix this with parameters (something 
we are working on in SVG and CSS), and it's a nice model.

Is it possible to add something like this?

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs

Received on Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:57:10 UTC