Re: lynx-dev printer options (revised patch)

[Philip Webb]

980824 David Henderson wrote: 
> I re-read my message, and see that I overreacted.  I'm sorry I blew up
> at you, Philip.  Little sleep causes loss of restraint sometimes.

understood; accepted.

> I would like to (more rationally, this time) discuss what you wrote:
>> i could as easily reply that if you use a non-standard screen size,
>> you may find that displays aimed at majority users come across badly;
> I could as easily say that if you use a non-standard browser, you may find
> that websites aimed at majority browsers come across badly.  The correct
> response is NOT to use a majority browser, but instead to fix the website
> such that it is written using the strengths of HTML, including device
> independence.  Inserting <BR>s where it looks nice on your display robs
> from the document its ability to adapt gracefully to all browsers,
> displays, settings, etc.

the problem may be that device-independence is an unrealisable dream.
i appreciate the aim of HTML's authors to make it so,
but tend to feel that most authors want some control over appearance.
 
>> i could also complain that i am inconvenienced regularly by people who
>> insist on breaking lines without regard to the syntax of their sentences.
> Lines shouldn't be broken where syntax is convenient; they should be broken
> where margins fall.  On the web, that means leaving up to the user agent,
> not hard-coding it.

if that were true, there would be little purpose in the <br> tag!
i do find it difficult to accept that having 1 clause/line (roughly)
can cause you a problem with your wider screen display:
it's not as though there's an excessive number of lines.

> hundreds of thousands of people post items with natural linebreaks.
> Books, newspapers, magazines, letters are written that way.

the reason with books/newspapers/magazines is to save paper;
with letters, it's partly unthinking pursuit of convention based on b/n/m
& the higher cost of paper & postage in the past,
partly because word-processors automatically break lines for writers,
who can then plough ahead without regard to where they are on the page.

> Poetry, OTOH, is usually written with no specific margin,
> but I don't consider the Lynx Users' Guide to be poetry.

some people (not you) seem to believe Lynx documentation is holy writ ...

> Star Trek?
 
Mr Spock would note how irrational humans so often are.

i appreciate this exchange of opinions,
but we both must have more important things to do.
as i said previously, while i maintain <br> exists to be used by authors,
i also recognise that Lynx Users Guide is communal property
& will abide by the consensus if there is one.

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