RE: Updated FAQ on display capabilities

I thought there was disagreement that the gap had disappeared.
 
Deborah
 
-----Original Message-----
From: public-i18n-geo-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-i18n-geo-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Lloyd Honomichl
Sent: 04 February 2004 00:40
To: public-i18n-geo@w3.org
Subject: Updated FAQ on display capabilities
 
Question: Do display capabilities of computers in other countries vary?
Do I need to worry about screen sizes, number of colors, etc.? 
 
Background: In the past (until the 90's) customers outside the United
States and Europe often had less capable computer systems than those in
the U.S. It was common for other countries to lag two to three years
behind in getting the latest in personal computer technology. This gap
has more or less disappeared in recent years. 
 
Similarly, in older text mod operating systems it was common for the
number of lines of text on the screen to vary. For instance while most
U.S. and European systems allowed 25 lines of text on the screen, some
Japanese systems had fewer, because the display height of Japanese
characters is greater (to allow better diffferentiation given the size
of the character set and the complexity of the characters) and some
systems reserved one or two lines for a "Front End Processor" (the
equivalent of today's Input Method Editor. Variations also existed
between various vendors' hardware in Japan until a standard system
emerged. 
 
Answer: Today there is no need to make special allowances for hardware
limitations in other countries - BUT many similar considerations SHOULD
be kept in mind for the following reasons: 
i) Accessibility. For instance, the fact that virtually every monitor
sold today can support millions of colors doesn't make it possible for
color blind users to distinguish all colors. For more guidance in this
area, check out the W3C Web Accessibiity Inititive. 
ii) Display capabilities vary a lot these days because different people 
have computers with different-sized screens, but also because there 
are a lot of other devices (PDAs, cellphones,...). Although not all 
Web pages may need to work on cellphones, try to design with as few 
limitations as possible. 
 
So, even though hardware variations across locales are not much of an
issue now, the same sort of measures are still needed, though for
different reasons. 
 

BBCi at http://www.bbc.co.uk/

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