- From: Tom Broxton <tom@isness.org>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 14:36:33 +0100
- To: www-style@w3.org
>> So that two people, without user styles, looking at a styled page see >> the same page to the greatest extent. > > The fundamental philosophy of HTML is that it that it defines the > structure, > so two presentations of a page which present the same structure are the > same page, even if one has a gap between paragraphs, whereas the other > has no gap, but indents the first line, etc. Given that the descussion was regarding the default style sheet of for screen based media, I think it is relevant and important that UA authors are encouraged to display web pages in such a way that they have a generally consistent user-interface. While it is important to remember that the HTML we write *could* be displayed differently (or not displayed at all). We should not wish for a world in which the default rendering for a page was an uninterrupted stream of text with no distinction for headings, paragraphs or hyperlinks. It may well be that allot of the conventions that we have settled are merely based on the way Mosaic did it, I think the web would be allot less popular if each subsequent UA author had gone their own way on how to display a page of information. It makes sense that headings are more prominent than body text and that there is some consistency in the way that hyperlinks are displayed on they web. The sample stylesheets are a way of describing this status quo. They are our 'user interface guidelines' and they should remind us of they way that most users will expect to see a page. Therefore I think it is important that they describe the way a user expects to see a page. I would expect the same basic consistency in the default stylesheets for other media too. Tom -- Tom Broxton 07866 435 853 http://www.isness.org/broxtt/ -- Tom Broxton 07866 435 853 http://www.isness.org/broxtt/
Received on Friday, 25 July 2003 09:36:34 UTC