[boost] Re: Front page, one last time.

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-12-14 17:56:44

Rene Rivera wrote:
> David Abrahams wrote:
>> Rene Rivera wrote:
> 
>>>Note, I did not originally go this way because I know how much of 
>>>"traditional" group Boost is ;-) So I tried not to stray too far from 
>>>the current layout.
>> 
>> I think you should try it.  As you might guess from
>> http://www.boost-consulting.com I am not averse to it.
> 
> I will... I just have to grapple with my own fears of copying myself as 
> it will look like the design I'm doing for Spirit :-\

I don't think there's anything wrong with the main Boost site and
Spirit's site being similar.

>> That is, I would like to have a maximum width
>> into which all of the page text will flow. 
> 
> Possible, but has its own set of problems..
> 
>> I'd like that width to
>> normally be considerably less than that of my screen,
> 
> Not possible.. The problem is defining "my screen". Since that changes 
> for everyone one can never have a measure that includes everyone. 

I didn't mean to establish a technical criterion there or say that it
should work for everyone.  I just wanted to say that the text shouldn't
stretch all the way across an average computer screen when the window is
maximized.

> Of 
> course it is theoretically possible to dynamically find that size using 
> Javascript, but then we know how much luck we've had with Javascript.

Heh.

>> and I'd like it to
>> change proportionally to the font size.  If that's what you've got, it's
>> not showing up on IE6 or Firefox.
> 
> What I currently have is that all measurements are specified in em's 
> (the width of 'M' for the untrained), unless it's something that is 
> specifying the size of a bitmap image. This means that the margins will 
> be larger when you make the font larger, and inversely smaller font, 
> smaller margins.

Right.  But the right margin is always measured relative to the right
edge of the screen.  I want a maximum and minimum distance that it can
deviate from the left edge.  Am I the only person who thinks this is
important?  Does everybody out there print their text documents in
landscape orientation with a small font?  Why hasn't the W3C made it
possible to express this?

> I alluded to problems.. One is that the 'max-width' CSS property, which 
> is what you are wanting, is only available in CSS2. So browsers like IE 
> don't support it.

Oh, so they have.
But MS is behind the curve.
Nice.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com