Quote:
Originally Posted by bowerbird
good.
now, for anyone who wants to know _if_ z.m.l. _can_ do something
-- something specific, something they _need_ -- feel free to ask me,
and i'll be happy to tell you if it can, and how you would accomplish it.
there are lots of people who seemingly want to tell you what z.m.l.
can _not_ do, but i don't suggest you ask them, because they simply
don't know my system like i know it. which only makes sense, yeah?
there are lots of things that z.m.l. cannot do. if you are an author
who wants to dictate the font(s) used in your book, you can't do it.
you can't dictate the fontsize -- not even the _relative_ font-size --
or the color of any of the text, or background color(s), or margins,
or the leading, or the pagesize, none of it, absolutely _none_ of it.
can't even make _suggestions_ about the settings of those things...
so, you know, if you _need_ those things, z.m.l. isn't right for you.
because all of those variables are controlled _solely_ by the reader.
oh, well, for the _record_, i have _considered_ a mechanism whereby
the author could make "suggestions" about some of those dimensions,
but i haven't made the decision whether i will actually _implement_ it.
of course, the final say in the matter will always rest in _the_reader_.
that is -- just for anyone who has been mistaken about it all along --
they'll be controlled by the _human_being_ who is _reading_ the book,
who i call "the reader". (when i'm talking about the viewer-program,
i call it "the viewer-program", the "viewer-app", or just "the viewer".
but when i say "the reader", i'm talking about the breathing human...
and it's that breathing human -- the one who is absorbing the words --
who makes the decisions about presentational aspects of a z.m.l. text.
-bowerbird
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While I applaud user choice there should be guidance in what the author intended. Bold, italics, font size and even swithing font can be a useful mechanism to let the user know they are now reading a letter, or a sign, or some other special effect that needs to be communicated.
I really like the way html started out back in version 3. It was great. The author hints about the weight and import of the data and the user controlled the presentation. No CSS where the author attempts to control everything and makes thing too complicated. What happened? (My web site is still built by hand with html.)
Well the source of the documents had to take over control of the documents and had to publish the page rather than present the data. Too bad, IMHO. And, for the user, the flashiness of the presentation overruled the accuracy or the content. I am amazed in the business community how much people with believe data presented in power point when they would challenge it on a type written page. I am in the minority it seems and you are even further from the main stream than I am it would seem.
Sorry, you post triggered a rant. I am better know.
Dale