Re: alternate font properties

At 1:06 AM +0200 7/29/97, Hakon Lie wrote:

>Another solution would be to make 'font' into something other than
>just a shorthand property. But overwhelming evidence will need to be
>presented.
>
>The better solution is probably to look at what [1] can offer..
>
>[1] http://www12.w3.org/TR/WD-font

I'm not sure what form "evidence" might take, overwhelming or otherwise.

As I see it, before the more comprehensive font solution taking shape in
WD-Font is deployed, CSS1 needs all the help it can get to minimize the
clear and present danger of "incomplete overspecification" of faces, sizes,
and line-heights - relative units or no - and to stem the tide of
image-text in commercial web work. With the change to 'font' David and I
are proposing, knowledgeable designers will be able to work more
responsibly and effectively with CSS1 in the interim.

I'd let seasoned guesses of time-to-deploy be a guide. If it will take one
year for this change to be widely deployed, and two for WD-Font, I'd say
it's worth pushing. Less than a year's difference, maybe not. This assumes
zero to minor architectural complication, and no (further) breakage in
today's semi-implementations.

________________________________________
Todd Fahrner
mailto:fahrner@pobox.com
http://www.verso.com/

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