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How would I write a CSS generator script?

by LameNerd (Hermit)
on Jun 03, 2003 at 04:42 UTC ( [id://262566]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

LameNerd has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Monks,

I would like to write a script that would take old (pre CSS) HTML as input and output what these HTML files would be if they had CSS written for them. I just have two problems, I don't know much about CCS and I am real lazy :)
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Re: How would I write a CSS generator script?
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Jun 03, 2003 at 04:52 UTC

      yank out all the unique font tag combinations, make each a classid, make the appropriate substituions, and you're done

      I think that strategy would defeat the background idea of CSS, which is to separate the visual format from the coding.

      By listing all unique font tag combos, you drop the content-related bits. e.g. you might find a combination of Arial - Bold and 14 point in a "h2" header and in the top row of a table. By giving this combination a unique classid ("ArialBold14" ?) and putting this info in the CSS-file, you really make the problem worse, as now you cannot anymore change the appearance of the "h2" header without also changing the top row of the table.

      At least you should also code into your "CSS-database" the "surroundings" of where the classid is to be put.

      CSS-items should be "meaningful", i.e. something like "ColumnHeader" or "BodyText" or "Title" or ... and should not directly describe the form of these items as this will get you no benefit for using CSS.

      Update: Podmaster I agree a H1-tag is not a font-tag, but you find the one contained within the other and similarity in (font)-formatting says nothing about the meaning this formatting wants to convey.

      CountZero

      "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

Re: How would I write a CSS generator script?
by atcroft (Abbot) on Jun 03, 2003 at 05:17 UTC

    Depends if you are generating new CSS definitions, or converting old pages to CSS.

    If old pages, I'm going to go out on a limb here, but why re-invent the wheel when you can get Tidy for HTML for several platforms, which will not only check your HTML for errors (and correct some of them), but with the -c option will replace some tags with CSS.

    If new CSS definitions, then get a list of features, and multiple screens, possibly first asking for the name, then what tags it applies to, then go from there...

    Just a thought....

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