Re: [9fans] mothra

[Andy Newman <atrn@zeta.org.au>]

Steve Kilbane wrote:
>For doing the translation, perhaps a leaf could be
>taken from troff's book, and have subcomponents of the page
>translated into something else - the underlying, internal
>language.

They are - boxes.  CSS2 defines a layout mechanism based on
boxes with different layout characteristics.  A modern browser,
e.g, Mozilla, maintains and transforms trees which eventually
get processed to draw something.  The document is a tree - HTML
or XML or something, there is a frame representation (the boxes).
Frame generation is controlled by style sheets which also specify
other attributes of the presentation. Frames are then processed
by the layout machinery to generate actual presenation commands.
There are numerous types of frames and numerous rules for how
they combine when positioned on some surface. Also remember that
HTML specifies interactive elements (and most sites use them)
and there's tables thrown in for good measure and they have their
own particular needs. JavaScript these days is for manipulating
the trees, i.e, dynamic HTML, where they CSS attributes get changed
in response to some event. Anyone who's done a page layout program
or formatter of any kind will appreciate the complexity of handling
modern HTML.  If you ignore style sheets it isn't too bad. The modern
rules make it harder. At least it gives the processors and memory
manufacturers cause for celebration.  Can't wait for a fully XML
enabled watch, probably generate enough heat to keep my wrist warm.