Changing CSS of RIA

The latest release of CSS has started a little debate online. CSS3 is currently under development by W3C wherein development is geared towards more adaptability to other programming language.

When CSS was first released in 1996, it was during the time when HTML is king – this programming language has practically suggested everything that will happen online.

Although there are a few contenders such as Flash, Java, PHP etc, not of them could suggest a behavior online like HTML.

Basically the success of HTML during that time was partly because of CSS. This tool when added in HTML added the needed functions in order for data to be manipulated. That means CSS is just silently running in the backdrop so that data could be properly presented in the browser.

CSS for other Programming Languages

But even though CSS is basically built for HTML, it has become adaptable to other programming languages, even those that are geared towards RIA.

You can see this clearly in Ajax wherein CSS is used to help manipulate behavior inside HTML. Using DOM, CSS could be applied after the functions have been properly tagged for CSS to interpret.

This is practically the point of argument among developers – CSS is exactly doing just that. It is being used through DOM and workarounds for CSS is almost an impossible task.

Even with CSS3, the situation is still the same. Developers have to contend with DOM in order to use CSS and will even require the use of HTML so that it could properly run and display the needed data online.

Three Sides of the Story

Based on the feedbacks on CSS3 there are three possible ways on how you can deal with CSS:

First is to totally ignore CSS – for some reason, the obvious didn’t come up on some developers. If you have any problem with CSS, don’t deal with it. There are other ways on how to deal with data manipulation which will also help in the aesthetic portion of the online application.

There are frameworks today that use JavaScript and other programming language to effectively build an Ajax based application without intending to dwell in CSS.

Second is to deal with CSS – CSS has been made for HTML and nothing more. Although you are able to push the boundaries of CSS, there are times that it’s better to stick with what you have rather than fail because you can’t do anything else.

CSS without HTML is possible but you’re trudging on dangerous grounds. CSS has practically stayed the same through the years and it could be better off staying that way.

Third is to suggest to W3C to do more – W3C has been doing a lot of things but nothing major on CSS. After more than 10 years of first release, most developers think this is the right time for W3C to implement some radical changes for CSS.

After all, the online world is not only about HTML anymore. We are moving towards RIA and CSS has to be there with other programming languages.