[rfc-i] RFC Format - final requirements and next steps

[Ole Jacobsen]

On Tue, 15 May 2012, Julian Reschke wrote:

> 
> I'm not sure people have asked for user-selectable fonts. I *do* see a
> requirement to select font *sizes*, for accessibility reasons.

Once the output format is "flexible" or "changeable" or 
"customizable", changing fonts and sizes is a natural consequence. 
That's what happens with HTML and browsers today, it's generally 
considered a Good Thing, ditto for reflowing. The downside is that it 
MAY completely ruin carefully designed and "beautiful" pages that were 
/designed/.

> 
> Not sure what you mean by "formatting".

Justification for example, italics for example, indentation for 
example.

> 
> "Re-flowable text" naturally follows from different device sizes.

That seems to be the current thinking, how "natural" it is I think
we could debate, designers certainly would debate it.

> 
> Did anybody ask for "artwork that moves"? If so, I missed that.

Artwork moves when the text reflows, or perhaps the artwork stays put
while the text "moves" (reflows). That means you can no longer say:
"...the diagram to the right shows..."

> 
> Finally, it's not only about "small" devices but also about "large" devices.
> For instance, I personally like to use the full width of my display for test
> display if I choose to, but the current fixed-with format doesn't allow me to
> do that.

Understood.
> 
> Thinking about good design is good. We probably haven't discussed that because
> we don't have it right now, and everybody assumed it will be better in the
> future (for some value of "better").

By "good design" I am referring to "readability" and "clarity." 
Perhaps these are over-used terms in this context, but I would not
want to throw out "design intent" in favor of output device 
"flexibility". To put this a different way: I would much rather have
a more "modern" format that looks good when printed and displays well
on "large" screens rather than optimizing the output for my iPhone.

I agree that it is (probably) possible to come up with a source format
that will satisfy all these requirements, I am just not seeing a lot
of discussion here about what exactly we want/need and why in terms
of richer media etc.

Ole

> 
> Best regards, Julian
> 
>