Re: lynx-dev printer options (revised patch)

[David Henderson]

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.  But
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.

> 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.  during my six years on the internet, I have seen only
a single person post articles (messages, E-mail, websites, etc.) with line-
breaks dictated by grammar, and hundreds of thousands of people post items
in that list with natural linebreaks.  Books are written that way.  News-
papers are written that way.  Magazines are written that way.  Letters to
friends are written that way.  Poetry, OTOH, is usually written with no
specific margin, but I don't consider the Lynx Users' Guide to be poetry.

David Henderson
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<*> davidh at psiphi.org, davidh at imsa.edu, davidh at cyberdesic.com