[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 09:27:40AM -0000, marc wrote:
Daniel B. said...
...
Please note another problem with PDF: The page size and layout
are fixed.
Not really a problem, more of a feature of the format; the idea being
that a PDF renders the same regardless of the display platform (at
least, in theory). In many situations, this is a very good thing.
It's a good thing only when the exact formatting really matters.
However, frequently it's a bad thing.
If you have a regular paragraph of words, it doesn't matter exactly
where the line breaks are.
Therefore, delivering it in PDF with lines broken at some particular
length requires viewing it in a window wide enough to see whole lines.
Delivering it in HTML allows the browser to break the lines to fit
within the the user's chosen browser pane width. That's a heck of
a lot more flexible.
HTML adapts to the user's browser pane width (well, if the author
doesn't break HTML's ability to do that).
Again, to be pedantic, it's CSS that controls the layout, hence the
author simply provides multiple CSS, which is what it's designed to do.
What do you mean by "the author simply provides multiple CSS"?
If _you_ want to look at something in a full-screen browser window and
_I_ want to use a half-screen-width browser window (e.g., to see two
web pages side by side), how is an author going to provide multiple CSS
stylesheets to cover both of us? What about every size in between?
Just to be historical, HTML text adapted to the user's browser long
before CSS had even been invented.
Of course! (Why do you point that out?)
The user can choose
how much screen width to use for a browser, the browser can
wrap regular text and tables to fit, and the user doesn't have
to scroll horizontally to read the bulk of the page.
And the user can also provide their own CSS too, should they wish.
Right. But the reader shouldn't have to re-write a page's style sheet
just to be able to read it conveniently.
Daniel
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