Ok, perhaps I should used a nicer tone. (I did include the warning
rant "tag," for what that was worth. Not much, I suppose.) It wasn't
intended as a swipe against you. But, judging from your message, I
guess the stylesheet is your work (mostly? entirely?). So forgive the
tone of my previous message.
Eric A. Meyer wrote:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>
http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/list-indent[/color][/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> Oh, and you forgot to say how you would have better solved the same
> problems we faced.[/color]
I'll respond within the message where it seem appropriate.
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>> <rant> That devedge site really has some design problems. The
>> font size is tiny on my monitor. But I'm sure being on the edge
>> of development means they know better than I the right size for
>> my monitor.[/color]
>
> The font sizing was dictated by... well, let's just say
> non-engineering types. Yes, that's right, folks, even in WWW
> design the visual design choices are not always in the hands of the
> person doing the CSS, who must make the best of the situation in
> which he finds himself.[/color]
If I read you correctly, then we agree that setting a small font-size
was not a good choice. Not to beat a dead horse, but I didn't intend
this barb to be aimed at the person who authored the site, but at
whomever decided that small font-size had to be used. Naturally, I
would have specified body {font-size: 100%}
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>> Still, being insolent, I increased the font-size, and voila! a
>> horizontal scroll bar, and the search box and links are partially
>> off the screen.[/color]
>
> Well, yes-- the design is set up to hang together no matter how the
> font size is changed. It's a bit better than most designs, I'd
> like to think, which fall apart when the text size is changed by
> the user.[/color]
I prefer not to have to scroll horizontally. Scrolling horizontally
is a pita, no matter how much it "hang[s] together."
I tried to find the right stylesheet to see what you did, and I may
have found the relevant stuff. #main has width of 100%, so I'm not
sure what specifically causes the horizontal scrolling. Perhaps the
divs which are inside of main, whose widths are specified in em units?
I suppose, give the center a flexible width. Or don't specify one at
all.
Sorry I cannot be more specific. All I know is that with my Mozilla
browswer at full screen (on my admittedly small laptop monitor) I get
a horizontal scrollbar.
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>> Then there's the style switcher. Might be nice, but I have to
>> enable cookies. Ironic, since the homepage encourages visitors
>> to get Netscape 7.1, which can load alternative stylesheets
>> without the aid of cookies or javascript.[/color]
>
> ...but which won't remember that alternative choice once you leave
> the page you're viewing.[/color]
A problem to be sure.
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> Until user agents manage to remember alternate-style selections
> from one page to another, cookie-based (or URL-encoded) theme
> systems are the best we can do.[/color]
Why not offer both? Let me view an alternative stylesheet. If I
decide I like it enough, I can enable cookies to keep that one
selected during my visit to the site. This is especially true since
the Netscape browser that you plug on the home page has a menu item to
allow loading alt stylesheets. Let users of that browser see how it
works, even if it doesn't work as well as it might.
BTW, the page
<
http://devedge.netscape.com/lib/themes/ >
contains erroneous information re: switching stylesheets via the menu.
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>> So, I reluctantly accepted cookies. Guess what? The switcher
>> still did not work. I had to select a new style, then reload the
>> page in the browser. Slick. Real slick.[/color]
>
> I haven't seen that problem until you mentioned it, which makes me
> think that something's gone awry with our server-side script.
> I'll see if I can figure out what's causing it and get it fixed[/color]
I tried again today. Still not working. I have to do a ctrl-shift-r
reload to get the new stylesheet loaded.
--
Brian
follow the directions in my address to email me