Fwd: Re: MQ Aspect Ratio

Forwarding discussion to www-style (with Timur's permission) per
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2007Jul/0195.html

Timur Mehrvarz wrote:
> Håkon Wium Lie wrote:
>>Timur Mehrvarz wrote:
>>> MQ says: "The ‘device-aspect-ratio’ media feature describes the aspect
>>> ratio of the output device.
>>>   http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/#device-aspect-ratio
>>> Does output device refer to the browser window, or to the actual screen
>>> pixel resolution?
>>
>> It refers to the aspect ratio of the device, not the browser window.
>> 
>>> (The distinction may seem irrelevant in cases, where the browser is
>>> being shown in fullscreen mode by default (on most mobile devices,
>>> TV's, etc.). But on the desktop, it's really the browser windows
>>> aspect ratio, that is the relevant criteria. No?)
>>
>> I agree. The name of the media query would also be simpler:
>> "aspect-ratio" instead of "device-aspect-ratio".
>>
>> Making this change, however, would mean that we have to go back to
>> last call. I'm unsure if it's worth it.
>>
>> How valuable is is to know the aspect ratio of the browser window?
> 
> Very valuable. Let's assume, we use "device-aspect-ratio" to provide  
> two stylesheets, one for portrait mode devices (N80, P1, etc.) and  
> one for landscape mode devices (E61, Blackberry, etc.)
> 
> Voilá, the same content lays out nicely on all of these handheld  
> devices. Because the browser on these devices usually runs in full  
> screen mode. And the device-aspect-ratio and the browser window  
> aspect ratio are usually the same (or almost the same).
> 
> But when you run the same content then on the desktop (where the  
> device-aspect-ratio is usually >1), your content will always be  
> rendered with your "landscape mode" stylesheet. So even if a user  
> sizes her browser window to match the screen of a portrait mode  
> mobile device, the landscape mode is being rendered for her. This is  
> a pity.
> 
> We really like to provide the same content to a wide range of  
> devices. So I am asking the CSS group to consider adding "aspect- 
> ratio" to the MQ specification. Thank you.

My position is, the window's dimensions are more relevant than the
device's dimensions. Therefore if the aspect ratio is a useful media
query we should add 'aspect-ratio' to go with 'width' and 'height'.
If it's not and we don't want to add 'aspect-ratio' then we should
also remove 'device-aspect-ratio'.

~fantasai

Received on Saturday, 11 August 2007 21:11:40 UTC