Re: several list messages

> I agree, if you try to fill the whole screen then it might cause some
> hassles for some people.  But, that should really be an issue for the
> browsers' developers, I think.  Probably off topic, since HTML probably
> won't control the amount of the screen being used.

This is absolutely, dead on accurate.

Now, in that context, consider this statement:

> > I don't think this should go into HTML. I you want to view text in multiple
> > columns than instruct your browser to format it thus.
> 
> I disagree.  I like the idea of being able to use columns in a document.

You see the problem - you can't control page width. I carefully
configure browsers I use regularly	 to have pages that have a line
width that I find nice and readable. If you come along and split this
into two or three columns, the results are going to be *ugly*. This
ignores the problems of doing columns when you don't know how many
lines of text are going to be formatted into each column.

Nothing keeps you from writing a browser now that reads standard HTML
and lays it out in n-column "pages" for you to read. I've printed
standard HTML as 2-column text before; it works ok (modulo header gifs
that expect to span an entire page).

Now, keeping all that in mind - can you propose a way of definining
columns that 1) gives you the control you want; 2) doesn't require
scrolling in from one end to the other (in either direction) to read;
and 3) isn't just a "lay this stuff out in n columns to fit the
display"?

	<mike

Received on Sunday, 4 June 1995 14:49:39 UTC