[OT] Re: Redesign of dlang.org

[via Digitalmars-d]

On Monday, 28 July 2014 at 06:54:00 UTC, w0rp wrote:
> media query syntax in there. One option in a few cases is to 
> show one element at larger screen sizes, and another element at 
> smaller screen sizes.

I think you should represent the information once. Otherwise 
people using assistive technologies might run into problems.

> So you could use a table when there is more available screen 
> width, or sections and paragraphs when there is less available 
> screenw width.

It is unlikely that people will spend a lot of time reading 
tables on devices smaller than a tablet.

HTML allows the browser to break up tables. Tables are not meant 
to be used for layout.

Even if browsers don't provide table optimized views, I'd suggest 
sticking to semantic HTML rather than trying to implement fixes 
for browsers not doing a good job. That might change in the 
future.

Sure you can create a layout that will work fluidly with all 
screen sizes without using javascript, but it takes extra work 
when you create content. That extra work is probably better spent 
creating a better experience for desktop use which is the primary 
use scenario.

> More commonly you will attempt use the same elements for both, 
> and reposition the subelements in a similar manner.

Yeah, but in reality you will often have to resort to javascript 
or spend >100% more time on the layout structure, to make it work 
on all screen sizes with just CSS (for a design that is a bit 
more complicated than a book).

CSS is less powerful than XSL/XSLT, so if you want multiple 
layouts maybe consider XSLT on the server instead.

Having the documentation in XML and mapping it to HTML using XSLT 
has many advantages (such as generating PDF).