[webkit-dev] Your opinion on a CSS proposal

[Windy Road]

On 06/06/07, Wesley Moore <wjmoore at gmail.com> wrote:
> Overlooking for the moment the problem Dave H raised, what would the
> rendering engine be aiming to do with the text when font-size was
> auto? I assume this is to make the resolution independent example
> you've made easier to implement, how does it help that?

Just say you wanted a RI (resolution independent) web page with a body
width of 62.5em, which comprises of a main column which is takes up
80% and a secondary column which takes up the remaining 20%.  The hope
is font-size: auto, would allow you to use the following CSS

body {
  width: 62.5em;
  font-size: auto;
}

#main-column {
  width: 80%;
}

#secondary-column {
  width: 20%;
}

Such a page would look identical on a 640px wide browser as a 1900px
wide browser in every aspect, except that the font would be much more
detailed in the 1900px wide browser.

While the demonstration shows this is achievable with Javascript,
there is quite a lot of 'scaffolding' to hold it all together.  Also,
I feel it is something that belongs more in the realms of CSS than
Javascript (you know, the whole separation of responsibilities).

I'll also admit that font-size auto does not address how to request
the server to deliver a correctly scaled version of an image, video or
similar.

Cheers,

-- 
Tom Howard
http://windyroad.org