[Python-Dev] Playing with a new theme for the docs, iteration 2 (original) (raw)

R. David Murray rdmurray at bitdance.com
Mon Mar 26 15:19:27 CEST 2012

On Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:44:40 -0400, Scott Dial <scott+python-dev at scottdial.com> wrote:

Why even bother formatting the page?

The web started out as content markup. Functional declarations, not style declarations. I wish it had stayed that way, but it was inevitable that it would not.

The authorship and editorship have authority to dictate the presentation of the content. A large part of the effectiveness of a document and it's ease of consumption is determined by how it appears in whatever medium it's delivered on. While this particular medium invites the readership

This argument can get as bad as editor religious wars. I like sites that do more content markup and less styling. You like the reverse.

There is a good reason to separate css (style) from markup. I just wish browsers gave easier control over the css, and that more designers would stay concious of how a page reads (ie: access to the content) without the css (and javascript).

I think Georg's design does pretty well in that last regard. (Except for those darn paragraph characters after the headers, but that flaw was in the old design too. Oh, and it would be even better, IMO, if the top navigation block wasn't there when there's no CSS, but that's more of an issue for easier access from screen readers, since the block is reasonably short).

--David

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