Re: lynx-dev style (was: local_dired cleanup)

[Rick Lewis]

Chuck, 
A Braille display translates what is on the screen into 
Braille, using keys on the display which move the user line-by-line 
through the text. 
The key element here is that many (not all) Braille display users 
have units that only display part of the screen. A portable 40-cell 
unit, for example, will, using contracted Braille, display maybe 60 
percent of the 80-cell line. 
It's not that we don't use indentation; we do. It's a part of
paragraphing. 
But, as you'd expect, we read from left to right. 
Any white space beyond the margin is ignored, just as you'd look quickly 
at it, realize it's blank, and move on to the next line. 
But space on the  left *isn't* ignored; it's encountered every time a 
line is read, and in most cases in lynx, it's blank. 
Indentation serves a useful purpose when it means something, like the 
beginning of a paragraph. But encountering those extra blank spaces 
just makes the Braille user take a tad longer to read each line--
maybe inconsequential on an individual-line basis, but it adds up. 
Plus, of course, if I have forty available "cells" or spaces for
characters to work with, (which I do), that leaves me with only 37 
(decreasing my available usable lines by 7.5% each, to no useful end.) 
As for your comparison with man pages, you have a point, but I suspect 
much more time is spent by users on the Web reading pages of interest 
than is spent perusing man pages, no matter how useful they might be. 
Also, regarding headers, I don't know about anybody else, but I *read* 
text and occasionally *use* or *note* headers. Better to indent the 
headers and leave the text alone, since most people spend more time
reading text, in my opinion. 
And, of course, as has been pointed out, every time I want to excerpt 
an item from a page, I always have to run it through an editor to 
bring that margin back to the left. 

By the way, another consideration involving Braille displays is that 
they're mechanical and expensive. They cost six to ten grand, and the 
more wear and tear you put on them (by changing from line to line, for 
example), the less time they'll last ... and there are some of us who may
just have to do without if a breakdown occurs. 
7.5% more use of the controls means more wear for the moving parts, 
hence less usable life for the equipment. 
That's why I'd support indentation of items used less, rather than for 
each line. 
No, I won't go away mad, sulking, if everyone disagrees with me. 
But I've tried to make the most factual and reasonable description of the
equipment (and my argument) possible. Thanks for asking. 
--Rick