Dave Pawson wrote:
>> On presentation:
>> Touching on the points raised before about presentation, I think that in the
>> dawning age of the semantic Web 3.0 (there, after resisting for so long I've
>> finally said it), where data takes precedence over form, I believe our
>> interop efforts should if anything sacrifice 'pixel perfect' rendering for
>> data integrity if necessary.
>
> -1, since an end subjective user assessment is key IMHO.
> Pixel perfect is nearly impossible, agreed, but presentation has been proposed
> as important and I agree. If we can't define it, scope it and explain
> how to test it
> then it gets deferred. Until then I'd like to see it remain.
Not sure if this is pertinent right this moment but.....
Most of the presentation problems I have seen when viewing document A on
computers A and B have been font issues. Granted I notice this MUCH
more with MS Office docs on a Linux system with Open Office. Often the
needed fonts are not found, so the system defaults get used, and these
are often slightly different in sizes. Resulting in paragraphs,
headings, etc, being different sizes. I've seen the same issue with ODF
documents opened on different boxes that had different default fonts
installed. (more usually where a specific font was chosen on the
original system..)
My question is how do we address the "interoperability" issue with
regards to presentation, if we cannot guarantee the same fonts will be
available. Do we make that a condition of testing - all tested
platforms have the testing font available? But does that become a
meaningless test for an end user who encounters this but is not aware of
the issue? After all the document will look different, so the
"interoperability" test will be a failure for that user. (as a
tech/developer, I see obvious answers here - i.e. install the font. But
to the general public/end user, this may not be so obvious.)
My apologies if this is off track right now. But the idea occurred to
me with the discussion of presentation, and I wanted to get it expressed
before I forgot about it.
Shawn
