Re: CSS changes

[James Henstridge <james daa com au>]

On 13/08/2003 1:48 PM, Curtis C. Hovey wrote:

> I think we should explore using em units instead of px. Since the
>
> driver of this issue is the size of the text, the design should be using
> the text's own dimensions in the solution.  I believe all gecko, IE 4+,
> Opera 5+ handle em correctly.  Images are an exception, they only size
> to pixels I think.
In this case, we want to size the header "large enough to display the 
text".  Ems are not the right solution here at all, unless you know how 
the line breaks will be inserted.  If you allow 1em of space for the 
links in the page header, what happens if the text wraps to a second line?

By letting header <div> pick its size automatically, we don't even need 
to worry about assigning a height to the header.  Simpler, and less 
breakable.

> I think we are using too much generic markup (div, p) to create the
>
> document structure.  Your example is not necessarily representative of
> GNOME Web content, but we should be using headings in banners, sidebars,
> and content to distinguish the major sections of the document.  Granted
> your example is a CSS proof, but it, like the developer homepage, is
> inert, there are no headings, or meta content that reinforce the
> important content of the page.
>  
The example I gave was for the header/sidebar that surrounds the content 
of a page.  I am not sure what elements you think should be used for 
this, given that it is not part of the main content.

I don't think it is appropriate to use a heading tag in the header or 
sidebar, since they are not part of the structure of the document.  If 
you take just the heading elements from an HTML document and discard the 
rest, you should be left with an outline.

The header/sidebar add about as much to the structure of the document as 
a letterhead on a paper letter from a company -- it tells you a bit 
about where the letter was from, but nothing about the content of the 
individual document.

James.

--
Email: james daa com au
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