CSS abuse

[Jeff Kinz]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 03:36:29PM +0200, Boris 'pi' Piwinger wrote:
> Jeff Kinz wrote:
> >> >I don't understand.  How does keeping the text a constant width increase
> >> >readability?  
> >> That is what centuries of typesetting showed. Long lines are
> >> very hard to read 
> > Yes for books....  We are not using books here.
> 
> Why do you believe it changes with the medium?

Because when the medium changed from paper to browser/HTML this issue
became one of usability, not readability.

I lose usability when I can't size the browser anyway I want it and have
the text re-arranged within that window.

When I have usability I also readability by setting the browser window
to a comfortable width when I want to be reading in an optimal fashion.

> 
> > By using fixed text width you destroy the inherent flexibility
> > of the browser to be arranged in the fashion that meets the needs of the
> > READER, which is the whole point of using browsers and HTML in the first
> > place.  
> 
> CSS changed that long ago. But max-width is *not* fixed
> width, it is just what it says, an upper bound.

In both Mozilla and phoenix the width was fixed.  It could not be made wider
or narrower.  I don't know if that was what was intended, but that was the
result.  


> > Since there is no way to turn off style sheets in Phoenix I can't turn off
> > the style either.
> 
> Since Phoenix is a Mozilla clone, you can probably use user
> style sheets to set max-width to auto for body.

ummm - not yet - There is no handle for it yet. At least I'm not aware of it. 
Its better to just not use a broken presentation style.  That way
all the readers don't have to change the configuration of their browsers.


> 
> pi
> 
> 
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-- 
Jeff Kinz, Open-PC, Emergent Research,  Hudson, MA.  jkinz at kinz.org
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