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Re: [css-text-4] text-wrap:balance take 2

From: Zack Weinberg <zackw@panix.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:00:58 -0500
Message-ID: <CAKCAbMgzXAgHk4j_ire6sO-8cPPs=ucmBJ6-cz2gZjqpJNwRFg@mail.gmail.com>
To: "Tab Atkins Jr." <jackalmage@gmail.com>
Cc: Florian Rivoal <florian@rivoal.net>, Alan Stearns <stearns@adobe.com>, "www-style@w3.org" <www-style@w3.org>, Randy Edmunds <redmunds@adobe.com>
I am concerned that this is getting to the level of detail where we
might end up (possibly implicitly) requiring the use of a specific
algorithm.  I don't think that would be appropriate here.

On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 1:19 PM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 12:04 AM, Florian Rivoal <florian@rivoal.net> wrote:
>>> On 26 Jan 2015, at 23:55, Alan Stearns <stearns@adobe.com> wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> the deviation from the average
>>> [...]
>>
>> Is this intentionally left vague, opening differences in terms of quality of implementation?
>
> That's not vague.  Deviation is a numerical value that you can compare
> across lines.  It's just linear difference.
>
>> I would clarify 'deviation' into 'standard deviation'. Compared to the mean absolute deviation, the std dev is preferable, as it punishes extreme values more. For example, on a four line block, if you have between each line being 1 character off the average, or 2 lines being exactly at the average and 2 lines being off by 2 characters, the standard deviation would prefer the first situation, while the mean absolute deviation would be indifferent.
>
> I agree that minimizing the squared deviation is better.  It's almost
> always better for these kinds of "get close to the average" things.
>
> ~TJ
>
Received on Tuesday, 27 January 2015 19:01:20 UTC

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