[compute] RE: [Sigia-l] Web Standards and I.A.s

[PTrebukov at SpencerStuart.com]

 Tom,

   Let me clarify some points (sorry, my explanations weren't clear
enough).


   1.  Spec for each page should include section dedicated to IA 
       needs so developers will use your classes no matter what.....

       Each page where you are going to use IA-classes.
       Reason: 
        It's possible that IA-class is not necessary to provide required
presentation at all
        or exists another class (not related to IA) with the same
styles.
        In these cases developer should be instructed how to use (or not
to use) IA-class.
        Probably the best place to do this is specification. 

      You can create all IA-classes without styles at all (empty) but
even in this case 
      using of IA-classes could require extra care. 

      Possible situation: absolute positioning. All coordinates (top,
left) calculated from
      parent element. So, if it's necessary to enclose content part in
extra <div class = "IA-class1"> 
      developer probably will have to adjust some positioning settings
for other elements.
      If extra element is not necessary you can use IA-class as second
class (<div class = "regular-class IA-class1">).
      But in both situations developer must know what to do with each
portion of the page related to each type of content.
      
      
   2. How to check proper usage of IA classes during the development,
testing and maintenance.

      There is no easy way to define how correctly or incorrectly
IA-classes are used.
      If article displayed on the blue background and it's correct how
would you know if IA-class used improperly (or not used at all)?
      Are you always going to make extra functionality based on
IA-classes' names (so something will be visibly broken)?
      You have to check HTML (or other) codes, run validatiors (if such
validators exist), probably do something else.
      

   All these tasks (see above and below) will require extra time and
extra efforts.  
   Wll result be reliable enough ?
            

Pavel Trebukov



-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Trottier [mailto:tOM at Abacurial.com] 
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 3:44 PM
To: sigia-l at asis.org; Trebukov, Pavel
Subject: Re: [compute] RE: [Sigia-l] Web Standards and I.A.s


On Friday, April 09, 2004 at 9:39,  <PTrebukov at SpencerStuart.com> wrote:

>   Tom,
> 
>     I absolutely agree. You can put all classes in one file and write 
> everything in the way convenient for you as IA.
>     No questions about this. 
>     There is another problem here. Styles (CSS) are not about content 
> or IA. Styles are about presentation. One of the main
>     goal of CSS is: Separate content from presentation. CSS syntax and

> techniques were designed to help designers and developers
>     to separate content from presentation, not to connect content to 
> presentation.
>     It's not a question can you use styles for AI needs or not. You 
> can. Question is how it will affect your project and your work.
>     Just couple of examples:
>       --- You probably will have to create and enforce naming 
> convention so names of your classes will be recognizable (e.g. 
> ai-myclass1).

Yes.
>       --- Coding rules should be developed for CSS coding as well as 
> for HTML coding.

Rules or guidelines.

>       --- Spec for each page should include section dedicated to IA 
> needs so developers will use your classes no matter what (I'm sure

each page? I would envision a CSS style for every piece of metadata in 
a single common style sheet.

The data presentation, web interfaces, and so on need to reflect the 
users' needs and expectations and the business flow, as well as the 
data's meaning in the database. It involves much more than CSS since 
inputs are expected and programming is needed.

CSS styles for particular metadata can serve as a useful standard 
presentation base that would help identify for the user what kind of 
data is displayed, but I would expect many overrrides for particular 
presentations of data based on space, use, and other considerations.

>           you familiar with section of Christopher Schmitt's book 
> where selectors described. And you know that class is just one of 7
possible
>           selectors and class is the only one type of selectors which 
> make sense for you as AI).

There are actually 8 selectors. IE just supports 7.

>       --- How to check proper usage of your classes? Class "Person" 
> should be used only for elements related to person info.
>           What about other places where red border required? It's very

> easy to use your classes improperly.

Yep.It's easy enough for developers to create and apply their own 
styles for new purposes.

>           You have to check this during the development and during the

> testing, so it's not only technical problem. It's also
>           an organizational problem.

CSS is a tool for developers. I wouldn't constrain style overrides 
much, but I do think names are important and should be used correctly.

>       --- What about maintenance? Six month later graphic designer 
> will change border color on the page #339, so technically
>           for this page you class is not necessary anymore. But 
> developer must not remove your class from HTML codes,
>           developer must use techniques to override your class. Is it 
> technical problem? In most of cases not at all.
>           But it's could be serious organizational problem.

That's why we have version control. It can be useful for CSS as well as 
PHP, C, C++, ...
 
>      And much more. Probably it's a good topic for another discussion,

> but how it's related to Information Architecture?

Presentation of data is more "peripheral" to IA concerns. Styles can 
provide a common view for users and developers.

tOM

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