At 22.38 +0100 99-02-04, Barry Leiba wrote:
> No, one shouldn't attack the symptoms; one should attack the problem.  I
> rather think there should be controls (in the browser) for text rendering.
> I should be able to specify the number of characters, pixels, or length
> units to use for text wrapping, and that specification should be separate
> from the window width.  *And*, notice that this doesn't affect any
> standards; it's a browser setting.

Do you by "I" mean the recipient or the sender? There is a controversy
over who should influence the font size. The CSS specification tries to
resolve this controversy, I am not sure if it is a good way of resolving
it! This is a very complex issue. What I am trying to do is only to
explain why many web pages have a combination of font size=-1 and narrow
line length.

You seem to be a friend of the viewpoint that HTML should logically
describe a document, not control the physical format, and that all
control of the physical format should be with the recipient. There
are arguments for this viewpoint, but there are also arguments for
different viewpoints. The tendency seems to be going towards more
sender control of the format. One might discuss why, to only say
that this is wrong will not solve any problems.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Palme <[log in to unmask]> (Stockholm University and KTH)
for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme