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Friday, October 26, 2007

CSS Snapshot 2007: W3C Working Draft

W3C's CSS Working Group recently published the First Public Working
Draft for "Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2007." The document
collects together into one definition all the specs that together
form the current state of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). All stable
specifications that have been implemented for the Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS) language at all Levels are given in this single document
as a guide for authors. The snapshot is not a guide to what features
are implemented. The group expects it to be a future Working Group Note.
When the first CSS specification was published, all of CSS was contained
in one document that defined CSS Level 1. CSS Level 2 was defined also
by a single, multi-chapter document. However for CSS beyond Level 2,
the CSS Working Group chose to adopt a modular approach, where each
module defines a part of CSS, rather than to define a single monolithic
specifcation. This breaks the specification into more manageable chunks
and allows more immediate, incremental improvement to CSS. Since different
CSS modules are at different levels of stability, the CSS Working Group
has chosen to publish this profile to define the current scope and
state of Cascading Style Sheets as of late 2007. The profile includes
only specifications that we consider consider stable and for which we
have enough implementation experience that we are sure of that stability.
The CSS Working Group considers the CSS1 specification to be obsolete.
CSS 2.1 is now a Candidate Recommendation -- effectively though not
officially the same level of stability as CSS2 -- and should be
considered to obsolete the CSS2 Recommendation. In case of any conflict
between the two specs CSS 2.1 contains the definitive definition. Features
in CSS2 that were dropped from CSS 2.1 should be considered to be at the
Candidate Recommendation stage, but note that many of these have been
or will be pulled into a CSS Level 3 working draft, in which case that
specification will, once it reaches CR, obsolete the definitions in CSS2.
CSS Level 3 builds on CSS Level 2 module by module, using the CSS 2.1
specification as its core. Each module adds functionality and/or replaces
part of the CSS 2.1 specification. The CSS Working Group intends that
the new CSS modules will not contradict the CSS 2.1 specification: only
that they will add functionality and refine definitions. As each module
is completed, it will be plugged in to the existing system of CSS 2.1
plus previously-completed modules. More Information See also the CSS Working Group: Click Here

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