Are CSS over ???

Hi,
I'm very new to web designing
I'm designing my first web site for a friend of mind that has a small
business
I recently finished a book on HTML and started playing in Dreamweaver MX
Then realize there was a faster and more efficient way to do things with CSS

So I started self-learning CSS, about a week ago
Today, while I was studying my CSS book at work...a programmer from my firm
said to me...

" What the hell are you doing....CSS !!!, those are over, you're loosing
your time! You should learn XML and XSL, that's the new thing !!!!!"

I tried to find info on the Web about "The Famous Death of CSS !!!!" and I
realy don't come up with anything.
I also took a brief look at the XML "world", and I don't really see it has a
replacement but more has a add-on; a supplement to the HTML-CSS world
already in place.

Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
should stay in his Delphi World, or am I miss something here and loosing my
time learning CSS????

Thank you for listening and for your help

Ray

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 23:56:20 GMT, hholidayy wrote:

Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
should stay in his Delphi World, or am I miss something here and loosing my
time learning CSS????

Yes, you friend is a lunatic. Or, just mistaken.

CSS is not dead, nor is it going to be dead. CSS3 is in development, but
don't worry, anything you learn with CSS1 and CSS2 will likely carry
forward.

HTML is dying. HTML 4.01 is the last version of HTML, it will be replaced
with XHTML, though CSS will still be used with it.

hholidayy wrote:

Hi,
I'm very new to web designing
I'm designing my first web site for a friend of mind that has a small
business
I recently finished a book on HTML and started playing in Dreamweaver MX
Then realize there was a faster and more efficient way to do things with
CSS

So I started self-learning CSS, about a week ago
Today, while I was studying my CSS book at work...a programmer from my
firm said to me...

" What the hell are you doing....CSS !!!, those are over, you're loosing
your time! You should learn XML and XSL, that's the new thing !!!!!"

I tried to find info on the Web about "The Famous Death of CSS !!!!" and I
realy don't come up with anything.
I also took a brief look at the XML "world", and I don't really see it has
a replacement but more has a add-on; a supplement to the HTML-CSS world
already in place.

Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
should stay in his Delphi World, or am I miss something here and loosing
my time learning CSS????

Short: no, your friend is wrong.

And css can be used to style pure xml. Even if you use xml and xlst, you'll
still have to transform your xml to something a human can easily read,
using xhtml/css.

Thank you for listening and for your help

Ray

--
mvg,
Christophe Vanfleteren

Sometime around Wed, 01 Oct 2003 23:56:20 GMT, hholidayy is reported to
have stated:

Hi,

G'day.

I'm very new to web designing

We all were once. :-)

I'm designing my first web site for a friend of mind that has a small
business

Sounds like a good place to start.

I recently finished a book on HTML and started playing in Dreamweaver MX

As long as you understand what you are doing... :-)

Then realize there was a faster and more efficient way to do things with CSS

Good.

So I started self-learning CSS, about a week ago

Excellent.

Today, while I was studying my CSS book at work...a programmer from my firm
said to me...

" What the hell are you doing....CSS !!!, those are over, you're loosing
your time! You should learn XML and XSL, that's the new thing !!!!!"

Idiot. Not that there is anything wrong with XML and XSL, but it will be a
while yet before they are widely used.

I tried to find info on the Web about "The Famous Death of CSS !!!!" and I
realy don't come up with anything.

Unsurprising, really. Browsers are still catching up with CSS, let alone
getting beyond it.

Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
should stay in his Delphi World,

Aren't all programmers lunatics? :-P

or am I miss something here and loosing my
time learning CSS????

Not at all. CSS will be around for a while yet.

Thank you for listening and for your help

You're welcome.

BTW: When crossposting, please set appropriate follow-ups (in this case I
have set them to ciwas)

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
should stay in his Delphi World, or am I miss something here and loosing
my
time learning CSS????

http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/WhatIsXSL.html

Read the FAQ at the above link.

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 23:56:20 GMT, in
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets "hholidayy"
<hholidayy (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

| Hi,
| I'm very new to web designing
| I'm designing my first web site for a friend of mind that has a small
| business
| I recently finished a book on HTML and started playing in Dreamweaver MX
| Then realize there was a faster and more efficient way to do things with CSS
|
| So I started self-learning CSS, about a week ago
| Today, while I was studying my CSS book at work...a programmer from my firm
| said to me...
|
| " What the hell are you doing....CSS !!!, those are over, you're loosing
| your time! You should learn XML and XSL, that's the new thing !!!!!"

Tell your programmer friend to stick his head back in the sand.
HTML/XML = information to be displayed
CSS/XSL = presentation of the material

I would only use XML/XSL if the material was destined for other media.

| I tried to find info on the Web about "The Famous Death of CSS !!!!" and I
| realy don't come up with anything.
| I also took a brief look at the XML "world", and I don't really see it has a
| replacement but more has a add-on; a supplement to the HTML-CSS world
| already in place.
|
| Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
| should stay in his Delphi World, or am I miss something here and loosing my
| time learning CSS????
|
| Thank you for listening and for your help
|
| Ray
|

---------------------------------------------------------------
jnorth (AT) yourpantsbigpond (DOT) net.au : Remove your pants to reply
---------------------------------------------------------------

CSS Work Group:

All your base are belong to us!

XSL Work Group

hholidayy wrote:

" What the hell are you doing....CSS !!!, those are over, you're loosing
your time! You should learn XML and XSL, that's the new thing !!!!!"

So why does the w3c XSL Web page (http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/) make
pervasive use of CSS in its HTML source? It is because XSL cannot be
used with HTML (See "Why two Style Sheet languages?",
http://www.w3.org/Style/#why).

XSL is used for transforming XML data into a format suitable for
presentation on a given media, such as XHTML/CSS. Note, that XSL doesn't
have to transform the data into XHTML -- it could transform the data
into some other presentation format.

hholidayy wrote:

" What the hell are you doing....CSS !!!, those are over, you're
loosing your time! You should learn XML and XSL, that's the new
thing !!!!!"

To paraphrase the W3C, use CSS when you can, and XSL(T) when you must.
XSL doesn't replace CSS, as much as CSS didn't replace HTML -- the two
technologies work side by side. Even though XSLT might make it easier
to spit out browser-specific workaround-HTML. But you pretty much only
need that for Netscape 4 anyway.
You can also combine the two. I do, and it keeps things easy to manage.
By the way, CSS is media-separated. XSLT is server-side when you want
it to work cross-browser today. CSS makes sense on the client-side
today.

So, your friend is wrong. Keep doing CSS. Then, you can also learn all
the XML/ XSL you like (XPath, XSLT).

--
Google Blogoscoped
http://blog.outer-court.com

Mark Parnell wrote:

Now, my friend "programming genius i know it all"...was he a lunatic that
should stay in his Delphi World,

Aren't all programmers lunatics? :-P

I'm not! Well, except at the full moon.

--
David Dorward http://dorward.me.uk/