I'd often dreamed about how programmers could simply do "fetch-data, output toXML()" in their code, leaving designers to XSL-rise the output into HTML/WML etc... only to sigh at the Designer's response of "Huh? Simi-LT? Dunno la.. I'll give you the files once I'm done with my DreamWeaver"

Apparently someone else has that dream too. However, he's moved a step closer to possible broader acceptance.. requesting only to "output toHTML()".. and requesting designers to use CSS stylesheet modifications only. He says "NO layout, NO colors, NO fonts, just data...."

Now, that's very much possible - not just technically (the first scenario is also technically possible) - and palatable too.


However, I hope to suggest a step for the programmer.. to add the "style=" attribute (since we're at HTML) because only programmers know the meaning of data, designer's don't. It is thus a programmer's job to provide that piece of information, which will make an impact to how the data looks like.

It could even be embedded into the toXML/toHTML code of the data objects - to make a programmer's life easy.. after which.. the only problem is really educating the designers not to drag the table width (Doh!), but to only change the CSS... Or perhaps, to reduce the indirection, Dreamweaver-alike applications can be modified/plugin-able to do stylesheet-only changes based on GUI events? Dragging tables? I'll change its CSS.. the table remains only minimally

I love new technologies / processes that people can glide into smoothly. That's what I call, a technological advancement.