Re: THEAD & TFOOT for columns

At 1:10p -0400 08/16/97, Jordan Reiter wrote:
 > At 6:27 PM -0000 8/14/97, Walter Ian Kaye wrote:
 > >
 > >Having to scroll in two directions is extra work for the user;
 > >limiting scrolling to only one direction cuts the work in half.
 > >And vertical scrolling is much more "natural" than horizontal
 > >scrolling. I think this is based on gravity; if you go back in
 > >time to when scribes published on actual *scrolls*, the scroll
 > >orientation was usually vertical -- you could drop the lower
 > >scroll to the ground and then read whilst operating only the
 > >upper scroll. Try that with horizontal papyrus and your neck
 > >will hurt. ;)
 >
 > What if the user has to go in the other direction; what if, as people have
 > mentioned, they are dealing with a many-columned work?  I think one problem
 > with HTML that has been posed by almost every facet of people dealing with
 > information/content (ie, artists, authors, accountants...) who *aren't* in
 > the standard scientific-academic field is that it clearly was developed
 > originally with an academic essay-style in mind.  There is no real reason
 > why HTML *shouldn't* allow Horizontal scrolling.  The fact that it doesn't
 > exist simply reinforces the idea that HTML had a narrow origin.  Let's
 > broaden it, shall we?

Well, can you solve the problem of vertical wrapping? Last year there was
a thread here about multiple columns (remember it?), and I don't think
anyone figured out how the snaking should work; there is also the matter
of column width versus window width, as lines of text should not be too
long or too short in order to ensure readability. Those problems need to
be solved in general before HTML can incorporate those solutions.

__________________________________________________________________________
  Walter Ian Kaye <boo_at_best*com>    Programmer - Excel, AppleScript,
          Mountain View, CA                         ProTERM, FoxPro, HTML
 http://www.natural-innovations.com/     Musician - Guitarist, Songwriter

Received on Saturday, 16 August 1997 17:20:18 UTC