Re: Length unit relative to media width

[Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:14:14 +0100] GS:
>The underlying problem is of course the 
>missing ability of css to build pages that looks the same on all media.

I respectfully disagree.

The "underlying problem" is twofold:

1. All too many web designers fail to see that no one can design
a (useful and non-trivial) page that "looks the same on all media."

2. CSS has become enamored of specifics which belong only in a WYSIWYG
("What you see is what you get") environment, when it should be working
to enable authors to express the *logic* of design instead of the details;
thus it encourages authors to think in WYSIWYG terms, and provides
insufficient tools to those who try to think in terms of design logic but
still want and need to code competitively well-designed pages.

Here's a simple, basic bit of design logic:

     * This heading should be centered.
     * This heading must be visibly larger than the sub-headings.
     * Under that constraint, if possible, it should fit on one line.
     * If it isn't possible to fit it on one line and still make it
       visibly larger than the sub-headings, then it should be broken
       into as few lines as possible, and the line breaks should be such
       that the lengths of the lines into which it is divided are as close
       as possible to being equal to one another.

If anyone knows how to express that in CSS, please tell me.

(Just to help you sleep well, consider this horror... a stubbornly
determined coder probably could do it using ECMAScript, and make it
work in at least one browser.)
-- 
Randall Joseph Fellmy aka Randy@Coises.com

Received on Friday, 21 February 2003 00:25:36 UTC