From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 22 12:43:32 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 637C8C6B for ; Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:43:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 18FB42A3E for ; Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:43:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id r7MChUs0016657 for ; Thu, 22 Aug 2013 06:43:30 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) with ESMTP id r7MChUbp016654 for ; Thu, 22 Aug 2013 06:43:30 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 06:43:30 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Feedback wanted: wrapping long lines in HTML docs Message-ID: User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 22 Aug 2013 06:43:30 -0600 (MDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:43:32 -0000 HTML versions of our documents show long lines in and elements. At present, these lines run right out of the boxes they are in. Some lines are very long. An example in the FDP Primer is 473 characters: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/xml-primer-elements.html (search for "example.xml:5") We have at least two ways of improving this. Long lines can be treated as they are in the PDF versions: the line is wrapped and an indicator character shows where it has been wrapped. Cut and paste will still copy it as a single line. Advantage: the entire contents of long lines are shown. Disadvantage: readers may misunderstand the wrapping or wrap indicator as literal. Another option is to add "overflow: auto" in the CSS. Scroll bars will be added to the bottom of screen and programlisting elements with long lines. Advantage: long lines are shown without wrapping. Disadvantage: the reader has to scroll to see the hidden part of long lines. Which method should be preferred for HTML documents, and why?