[Zope3-dev] Re: Brainstorming page architecture, pagelets, portlets, etc.

[Jean-Marc Orliaguet]

Tonico Strasser wrote:

> Jean-Marc Orliaguet wrote:
>
>> Tonico Strasser wrote:
>>
>>> Jean-Marc Orliaguet wrote:
>>>
>>>> - for the styling, have a pluggable interface to let the layout 
>>>> renderer write CSS class names and let portlets, pagelet register 
>>>> their own CSS styles (that should be done through a renderCSS() 
>>>> method, not through a flat CSS document)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This reminds of a CSS library for Python I've seen some time ago. I 
>>> wonder how such a CSS renderer will deal with CSS hacks[1].
>>>
>>> [1] <http://cthedot.de/cssutils/>
>>> [2] <http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssHack
>>>
>>> Tonico
>>>
>>
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> Personally I strictly use no hacks, since most of them are meant to 
>> make it possible to use the exact same HTML code in many situations 
>> and let the browser handle the negociation/browser detection logic 
>> (NS4, IE, text-based browser, hidden boxes, PDA, etc...).
>
>
> But I have to deal with CSS hacks every day. Browsers are not perfect 
> yet. Here ist an example were I *have to* use some hacks to fix 
> browser bugs: <http://www.webproducer.at/flexible-layout/>
>
> I agree completly with you that avoiding hacks is the best practice, 
> but sometimes you can't.
>
> Tonico


Hi! layout rendering in CSS is a tricky issue. It works fine for simple 
layouts (3 columns), but if you have a portal with dynamic content and 
more advanced layouts ('pagelets' for instance) - then tables are the 
safest if not the only choice. Nothing prevents you from using a 
tableless renderers though. I am doing advanced layouts that CSS cannot 
cope with. But again you can move the selection of a layout renderer to 
Zope because trying to solve everything on the browser side is a fight 
lost in advance. If you look at the softwares used by on-line newspapers 
they bet on the safest choice, i.e. tables. It is a matter of being 
pragmatic and not being too much focused on being semantically correct 
all the time. Anyway the idea of having several layout renderers somehow 
puts and end to the debate since it makes it possible to choose between 
different options.

/JM