Re: New Working Draft : BECSS

I'm running late on this one, but here's my reply:

 > Can you please all answer to the 3 following questions (mark answer with X)?
 > 
 > YES	NO	QUESTION
 > 
 > [ ]	[x]	Should CSS and Behavioral Extensions be mergeable in a
 > 		single file, from a web author's perspective ?
 > [ ]	[x]	Should CSS and Behavioral Extensions be mergeable in a
 > 		single file, from a developer's perspective ?
 > [ ]  [x]	Should the text/css mimetype be used for CSS and BECSS ?

(CSS should continue to use "text/css", however)

 > [x]	[ ]	Should we propose instead a new mimetype and a new rel/rev value ?
 >
 > Comments and explanations :

The distiction between presentation and user interface is somewhat
blurry and I support experiments in the field -- :hover is a good
example. I think, however, that all new proposals for CSS should be
declarative; adding executable code to content labeled as "text/css"
(which is proposed by [1]) is too much of a break with the past. For
example, the last line of CSS1 [2] -- before Appendix A -- states:

   We do not expect CSS to evolve into:
      a programming language

The RFC [1] which describes the "text/css" content type says, under
"Security considerations":

    CSS style sheets consist of declarative property/value pairs
    assigned to element selectors. They contain no executable code.

I do not think it is prudent to remove the "no" in the last sentence
at this point.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-becss-19990804
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1
[3] http://sunsite.auc.dk/RFC/rfc/rfc2318.html

I believe it's in everyone's long term interest -- including web
designers -- that executable code is kept out of CSS.

-h&kon

Håkon Wium Lie                     http://www.opera.com/people/howcome
howcome@opera.com                                gets you there faster

Received on Sunday, 24 October 1999 16:17:58 UTC