Re: lynx-dev Header alignment problems

[Heather Stern]

I ate the fortune cookie first, then read what Rick Lewis wrote:
> 
> I'd just like to see something simpler and more basic. I"d like to see 
> lynx read Netscape/IE-enhanced pages so that what's meant to be flush 
> left *is* flush left, instead of always being a few spaces to the right. 
> I use a 40-cell Braille display, and am always frustrated at the useless 
> loss of two or three spaces unnecessarily. 
> Every once in a while, I find a page where the left margin is 
> flush left, and these are so much more of a pleasure to read! 
> --Rick

How does a braille reader render punctuation usually?  (Have to say 'usually'
before someone comments "like its user told it to" which doesn't help sighted
people like me who don't encounter them understand what you're 'viewing'.)

If I understand correctly the normal text is indented slightly so that Lynx
can display Headers as fully outdented.

Personally, I wouldn't mind Headers to be render something like:

--sample begins

> Header One In All Its Glory 
>> Header Two Interesting Portion Number One 
>>> Header Three Side Note 

--sample ends

Okay, maybe it doesn't have to be > (which could be a rendering headache),
though I wonder what could reasonably used that wouldn't look like a bullet.
I'd certainly be willing to see normal text at the edge, and Headers indented
differing levels, or marked by enhancements of some other sort instead.  
Color not available in all terms, but maybe =Header 1=  ==Header 2== etc?

--begin sample

=Header 1=
==Header 2==
===Header 3===

--end sample

Hmm, that seems to give more marks to Headings that are supposed to be *less*
important, maybe if we use different marks per H number?

--begin sample

****** Heading 1
====== Heading 2
~~~~~~ Heading 3

--end sample

(At least it shouldn't be mistaken for a bullet.)

Another possible way is to render Headings with an underline indicating the
heading level.  Mosaic used this for its print to text styling, and a few
people I know use it in their emailing without a second thought:

--begin sample

Header One
**********

bla bla bla dogbert ...

--end sample

This might be trickier to render.

I think any of these could allow us to honor Hn alignment requests in a 
pleasing way.  Right now any Header alignment requests are lost?

If any of these are accepted I should hope that the default is something that
reads smoothly to a speechreading user.

        :                                       
     `-.|.-'           . | .        |           
address@hidden    --->*<---    - * -    -*-   Heather Stern
     .-'|`-.           ' | `        |            address@hidden
        :                                        
All his life he has looked away... to the horizon, to the sky, to the future.  
Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing.  -- Yoda