[Sussex] A new look to our web site

[Gareth Ablett]

Steve

 From: Steve Dobson [mailto:steve at dobson.org]
 Subject: Re: [Sussex] A new look to our web site
 
> Gareth
> 
> On Fri, Jul 30, 2004 at 12:38:43PM +0100, Gareth Ablett wrote:
> >  From: Steve Dobson
> > > I haven't got around to learning XHTML yet - It is on my ToDo
list.
> >
> > Its so much better plus you don't use damn table for design you only
use
> > tables for tabular data in XHTML.
> 
> Before I raise it to the top of my ToDo list a question:
> 
> Can I just replace the HTML in my PHP files with XHTML?  If so that
I'll
> take the hit and learn it now.

Yes, its no different then html except a little stricter.

(don't forget you will need to use css for design)
 
> > > The IE problem was due to poor support in IE for transparent PNGs.
I
> > > used the scaling clear pixel cheat to position some of the textual
> > > components and these were being rendered as white by IE.  I've
> > > replaced these with a clear pixel GIF (Damn - I didn't want to use
> > > non F/OSS formats).  It should render okay now.
> >
> > Better but there are sill gaps. Although it would annoy you but you
> > don't get this problem with XHTML.
> 
> Where are these gaps?  I've a block of white space to the bottom of
the
> text area on the page.  So this should force the text area as wide as
it
> can get.

Just above the menu and just next to the penguin(lower part)
 
> But the way it is a very bad idea to have very wide text as it can
cause
> eye strain.  The best line length has between 10-12 words per line.
This
> said to be the best compromise between fitting as much text on to the
page
> and straining the eye as it scans back for the start of the next line.
> 
> [I hold my hand up, I'm a geek.  I read stuff on text presentation.]

useful to know although I normally have a fixed width site there for I
know how many words are going to get in a line. Although for my blog
site I just checked and the average is 15 words a line
 
> I am of the school that says that in HTML I should define the font
> height absolutely.  This is because people with very big displays
(like
> Gareth) need larger fonts (in terms of pixels) than people with much
> smaller screens.

I'm from the school that says that you shouldn't define the font height
in html it should be in css.

No I have a large VDU so the RES is acceptable.


Gareth Ablett
Systems Developer

ITP Services Ltd.
http://www.itpserve.co.uk/

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