Re: Columns and other layouts

David wrote on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 1:10:51 AM:

> The problem for web pages though, is that browsers should be
> optimised for incremental rendering, and the result is either a
> delay in rendering or irritating reflow from the proovisional to the
> final form (the TeX algorithm, I believe, optimises at a paragraph
> level).

Although I believe only in rare cases would the height of the element
change (unless I'm missing something), preventing this particular
problem is easy enough using a mechanism already in CSS. Using the
names I suggested:

    *{line-break:normal!important}

You wouldn't even need to know CSS; UAs could offer it as a
preference. You could even do this:

    *{line-break:normal!important}
    h{line-break:smooth!important}

Where the h element is a heading. You would elminate most potentially
annoying uses while preserving the best use.

When I used the longer text as an example, I was really just trying to
show how the mechanism would work. I didn't think it would be much
applied to paragraphs, but as the original person wanted, for
headlines. I think it could solve one of his problems, without ruining
or rewriting CSS.

-- 
John Lewis