- From: Øyvind Stenhaug <oyvinds@opera.com>
- Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:22:26 +0100
- To: "Kang-Hao (Kenny) Lu" <kennyluck@csail.mit.edu>
- Cc: "WWW Style" <www-style@w3.org>
On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:17:41 +0100, Kang-Hao (Kenny) Lu <kennyluck@csail.mit.edu> wrote: > (12/03/01 0:58), Øyvind Stenhaug wrote: >> On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:16:28 +0100, Tab Atkins Jr. >> <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Yup, everyone does the obvious thing. I've added the word >>> "proportional" in front of "concentric ellipses". That sound good? >> >> I think you'd need a further restriction. As I understand it, a radial >> gradient consists of all ellipses E such that >> 1) E and the ending shape are concentric - that is, they have the same >> center >> 2) E and the ending shape have the same eccentricity - I assume this is >> what "proportional" means, though using that word when talking about >> two-dimensional shapes sounds unfamiliar to me (I didn't use the term >> "similar" since that has a non-mathematical meaning which is much more >> vague) >> 3) the major semiaxes/radii of E and the ending shape coincide >> (otherwise you'd include ellipses that are rotated by any arbitrary >> amount) > > Well, in some sense "proportional" could be interpreted as "scaled > proportionally" (so no roation involved and hence it covers 3) ) so I > found Tab's tweak satisfactory. Most importantly, it doesn't seem to be > necessary to confuse readers with mathematicl terms like "eccentricity" > and "semiaxes/radii" when the interoperability problem this vagueness > might cause is pretty theoretical. Right, I didn't mean to suggest an actual wording, and I agree that it's a relatively minor and theoretical issue. (Though in general I think exactness should trump briefness and readability for non-technical readers, for the normative sections. I'd prefer not to have to interpret and guess what the writer meant.) How about "uniformly scaled" instead of "proportional"? -- Øyvind Stenhaug Core Norway, Opera Software ASA
Received on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 18:23:09 UTC