[Leaplist] stylesheets and server-side includes

[Jason Boxman]

On Friday 08 August 2008 23:31:10 John Simpson wrote:
<snip>
> it may also be that i normally keep the ambient light level fairly low
> (one 13-watt fluorescent bulb on top of a "torch lamp", reflecting off
> the ceiling to provide light.) in that situation, a large field of
> white on a computer screen is too much light all at once.

Yes, I've loaded plenty of white-background pages in that kind of environment.  
It's way too bright!  I rarely work that way of late.

> in either event, the one thing which is abundantly clear is that
> different people have different opinions (or scientific reasons) about
> what they prefer... and now i'm able to cater to both camps. even
> better, there's no javascript- it's all stylesheets, and just the one
> CGI script to send a cookie which holds the user's preference.
>
> if i knew a way to set that cookie using a static file, so CGI wasn't
> involved, i would. unfortunately, there's no easy way to do that,
> because i'm calculating the expire date for the cookie when i send it.
>
> although...
>
> here's a question for somebody who does more hardcore web development
> than i do... if i send an "expire=+1y" term in the "Set-Cookie"
> header, can i reasonably expect all standards-compliant browsers to
> interpret that correctly? (obviously, i don't care what IE does with
> it.) if so, i can create an ".asis" static page to set the cookie...

If you set that cookie everytime, the date will forever to get pushed into the 
future, I believe.

> hrmmm... time to do some experimenting... i figure if firefox and
> safari both handle it correctly, then it's reasonable to expect most
> other browsers to handle it as well.
>
> > Design has a concept of 'whitespace', after all.
>
> and on a document with a blue blackground, would you call that
> "bluespace"?
>
> i think a better term for this concept would be "nullspace", that is,
> space which is devoid of any real content. i don't think the concept
> requires, or even implies, that the space is necessarily white (or any
> other color.)
>
> > It's silly anyone would email someone and complain about the color
> > scheme,
> > though.
>
> i agree, but it's been happening for several years. some people get
> tweaked about the strangest things...
>
> > Just override the stylesheet locally or find another resource.
>
> overriding the stylesheet locally means downloading the stylesheet in
> use for the site, editing it to match your desires, and then telling
> your browser to use your version for that particular web site. most
> people don't even know THAT they can do this, let alone know HOW to do
> it, or have the time and CSS knowledge to actually DO it.

I am fairly certain you can simply override individual portions.

body {
background: white;
color: black;
}

Done.

> and as for finding another resource... i understand your point, but
> what if there IS no other resource? what if the page you're reading is
> literally the only page on the internet (at least according to google)
> which has the content you're looking for?
>
> and the thing is, i WANT to make my site useful, i don't want to make
> people NEED to find other resources, at least not unless they're
> looking for something i honestly don't have. giving them an easy way
> to change the color scheme makes it a little bit easier for them to
> use my site.

Certainly.  The internet is so vast, I've never had to email the author to ask 
that the design be adjusted.  I'd take those emails as a compliment as your 
resource is clearly truly exceptional in value!


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