CSS3 - Good thing, or useless?
Recently I was traveling around the World Wide Web Consortium's web site ( http://www.w3.org ) and as I like to read up on new material, I happened upon the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 3 current work section ( http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work ) and really all I could think was that it was getting pointless.
While I believe that some of the technology has it's [limited] uses, I just don't think that when it comes down to it that this will be an integral part of my web design.
What do you think?
Mike Fisher
Hypertrophy (design)
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ICQ: 38389521
"Taking over TWF, one post at a time."
Vincent Puglia posted this at 19:00 — 13th July 2000.
They have: 634 posts
Joined: Dec 1999
Hi Mike,
Not having seen the proposal, I can't really say. However, based upon the history of computers, the tendencies of people, and the pace of technology -- the envelope will be pushed and pushed again. How much of that envelope pushing you want to take part in is entirely up to you (at least up until a point). For example, I don't see the need for better graphics (other than for photographs) and sound (if I want to hear a song, I use a stereo, not my PC), but there are many sites that cannot do without either.
Finally, if you decide not to follow CSS-3, when it becomes a standard, and need help making some page or effect forward compatible, someone will ask why you didn't upgrade or 'get with it'.
Vinny
-----------------------------------------------
All things that go around, come around
including different strokes for different folks
Where the world once stood
the blades of grass cut me still
temis posted this at 20:48 — 13th July 2000.
They have: 8 posts
Joined: May 2000
Cheers all,
I am glad I ran across this post - I haven't been keeping up with the W3C.
I will express my opinion, if I may...
I dont think that CSS is becoming pointless. The web continues to grow, and the standards grow accordingly. CSS 3 is taking the technology a step further with SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Flexibility is what the web screams for nom with all the data driven sites. We have all, I am sure, said many times: separate appearance from content! This is being done very well with CSS 1 and CSS 2, but I can see why CSS 3 is being developed:
Think about this: not having to worry about resolutions and website accessibility? Create complex animations with a script? Soon we will not be so much computer-screen oriented, but we'll be designing for hand-helds and TV's and other types of devices (some of us are already). When you go into TV screens - what happens to your graphics? What resolution should we work for? SVG seems to be close to solving the problem - graphics are actually resizable.
<>
BTW- are any of the browsers on the market SVG enabled?
[Edited by temis on 07-13-2000 at 05:37 PM]
Maverick posted this at 02:32 — 14th July 2000.
They have: 334 posts
Joined: Dec 1999
CSS 3 is consigned to the same fate as CSS 1 and CSS 2. The W3C can ponder standards from now until doomsday, but it doesn't mean a thing if it gets implemented poorly in the major browsers. Despite nebulous promises to support internet standards, neither Netscape nor Microsoft truly does it. They merely use their own views on the specs, so things look a bit different from browser to browser in the best case scenario and in the worst case sometimes the same code produces results that are not even recognizable as being related to each other.
CSS 3 looks great on the surface, but will it ever be that good in the real world? I'd bet that it won't. Some parts of the final CSS 3 spec will make it into the pipeline and achieve widespread usage (and I have high hopes for SVG), but other parts are just going to be more trouble than they're worth. Until Netscape and MS prove that they can get along and play nicely with each other, I'm going to keep using tables, invisible gifs and included files to control my layout and appearance rather than relying heavily on style sheets. At least I know that method works with a reasonable degree of backwards compatability without needing to design 2 different sites to accomodate the differences in browser page rendering.
TheGraphicsExpe... posted this at 03:12 — 14th July 2000.
They have: 184 posts
Joined: Jun 2000
I'm dearly sad that the Consortium hasn't standardised the filter function. I use it exponentially in my sites, too.
Lloyd Hassell posted this at 16:38 — 15th July 2000.
They have: 231 posts
Joined: Feb 2000
CSS is very handy and will continue to improve as time passes. CSS will become an even more important part of web design in the future. The only thing that holds it back at the moment is browser compatibility issues. I read somewhere that the tag is going to be removed. W3C favours text control with CSS rather than tags.
:: Lloyd Hassell :: http://www14.brinkster.com/lloydh ::
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