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Re: lynx-dev indentation (was screen widths)
From: |
Chuck Martin |
Subject: |
Re: lynx-dev indentation (was screen widths) |
Date: |
Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:12:32 -0400 |
On Fri, Apr 23, 1999 at 10:38:01AM -0400, Philip Webb wrote:
>
> (1) the Lynx indentation scheme is hidden in a source file
> & appears to be documented nowhere;
> surely, it should be in Users Guide: could CM fill that gap?
True, it's only documented in the source code, and I found it by
accident when I decided to explore the code one day (which I still
haven't done very extensively). Perhaps it should be documented, but
I'd rather study it a little more before trying to document it myself.
> (2) when Lynx was first being created,
> the typical WWW document was generally simpler & largely text:
> the spread of frames & imagery came later,
> causing purely textual layout to be side-lined
> by the vast majority of document authors;
> this means that <H2> & <PRE> tend to be quite rare these days
> -- eg in typical Internet newspaper stories --
> & the first 3 columns are lost without anything useful in return;
I don't believe that's entirely true. I see <H2> quite often used for
section headings, and I often use those section headings to scan a
document. If the whole document was no longer offset by those three
spaces, I couldn't tell the difference between a section heading and
a very short paragraph that only takes a single line. This would make
scanning documents more difficult. Headings need to stand out, and I
see no other way to do it in a monospace font. It's really the same way
it's done in man pages, except they use more spaces.
I've recently tried using color style, which I like, but if an author
does something like "<H2><B>Section Heading</B></H2>" the color associated
with <B> will take precedence over the the color associated with <H2>,
so it will never be a useable substitute for my purposes. Besides that,
it won't help people who don't have color.
> (3) in the continuing absence of style-sheet support,
> Lynx in practice has to offer a default screen-layout style:
> how far are lynx-devers in fact satisfied with the current effect?
> should we consider changing indentation for nested lists (as above)
> or (my problem) removing the basic 3 column indentation,
> which currently applies to everything other than <H2> & <PRE>
> before the further indentations for other tags?
I would welcome a discussion of the nested list indentation, but as far
as the three space indentation for normal text, I think I've explained
adequately my reasons for preferring that they be kept.
> (4) there is also the R-hand margin, where Lynx loses 6 columns:
> this is not part of the indentation layout,
> but a separate stylistic choice from long ago.
I agree it's a stylistic choice, and one which I'd be less inclined to
oppose changing, since it doesn't add information like the 3 spaces at
the left, but I think that the present situation looks more balanced
than if you removed those spaces. When I write on the computer with
an 80 column screen, I never go all the way to the right edge because
it looks crowded and unprofessional, and I think that was likely the
reason for lynx being set up the way it is. My vote would be to keep it
as is.
Chuck
- Re: lynx-dev screen widths, (continued)
Re: lynx-dev screen widths, Bela Lubkin, 1999/04/16
Re: lynx-dev screen widths, dickey, 1999/04/17
Re: lynx-dev screen widths, Henry Nelson, 1999/04/19
Re: lynx-dev screen widths, Bela Lubkin, 1999/04/20
lynx-dev screen widths, Philip Webb, 1999/04/21
Re: screen widths [lynx-dev], Michael Warner, 1999/04/21
Re: lynx-dev screen widths, David Woolley, 1999/04/23