RE: [media-queries] chicken-egg problem with font-based lengths

[Felix Miata:]
> 
> > The pt unit is defined as 4/3 of the px unit, which is defined as 1/96
> > of the in unit, regardless of user defaults
> 
> Which is inane.
> 
> > or anything else.  All modern browsers implement this, because it's
> > required for web compatibility.
> 
> Compatibility with incompetent design.

Breaking the web experience of hundreds of millions of people for who knows
how long because a few thousand web authors are 'incompetent' would be an 
inane trade-off. Insane, even. 

> Technical definition doesn't matter. Reality does.
Precisely. The technical definition reflects the reality of billions of web pages
explicitly or implicitly assuming the pixel to be 1/96px of an inch. The "reality" 
of some devices or implementations ignoring well-established facts on the ground 
has zero impact on said content and the need to be compatible with it. It should 
also be far easier and cheaper to fix the software on those devices than all the 
existing content that depends on this ratio, if only given the amount of content 
that outlives the average browser release or device by several years.

But as this horse has been beaten, killed and recycled 20 times already the least 
inane step is to move on.

Received on Monday, 20 August 2012 17:34:39 UTC