Re: Tables and Charts

Chris Tilbury (C.J.Tilbury@estate.warwick.ac.uk)
Fri, 7 Jul 1995 17:17:44 BST

On 7 Jul 95 at 10:03, Benjamin C. W. Sittler wrote:

> Qestion: Since it is suggested that CLASS names can have more than
> one word seperated by '.', with the leftmost word being the most
> general, why not "enforce" this in stylesheets by specifying that,
> for example, <P CLASS=MyClass.MySubClass> would inherit properties
> of <P CLASS=MyClass>? That way, if you wanted to customize a
> pie-chart, you could set the properties of <TABLE
> CLASS=2dpie.MyStyle>, which would inherit the properties of <TABLE
> CLASS=2dpie>, which would usually (in graphics-capable browsers,)
> render as a pie-chart by default. This could, of course, be
> overridden in a stylesheet. <TABLE CLASS=2dpie> could, for example,
> be styled to render as a plain table, a bar graph, or whatever,
> using stylesheet properties like those you suggested.
>
> Any comments? (I know, this would majorly muck up current stylesheet
> designs, but wouldn't it greatly enhance them?)

I think it depends what you think is easiest;

<TABLE CLASS="2dpie.My2DPieChart">, with
TABLE.2dpie.My2DPieChart : (etc, etc)

or;

<TABLE CLASS="my2dpiechart">, with
TABLE.my2dpiechart : renderstyle.type = 2dpie

They both come out evens, really.

I'd only note that we're getting (once again) dangerously close to
introducing more presentation-orientated features into HTML by
specifying the chart type by saying that a table of CLASS="2dpie" is
a 2D-Pie chart. Like all the other "hints" regarding presentation,
I for one would prefer them to live in stylesheets with a more
content orientated value used for the CLASS attribute (say,
CLASS="meters.readings.june" or CLASS="building.floor.areas").

Ciao,

Chris

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