I couldn't take it anymore

The Wikipedia article on Web Design su is very, very bad. They know it's bad, it's slated for rework.




Anyway, late last night I saw this:

Programmers were the original [[web site designers]] in the early 1990s.

Currently most [[web designers]] come from a [[graphic artist]] background in print, where the artist has absolute control over the size and dimensions of all aspects of the design.{{Factdate=February 2007}} Many of these web designers have knowledge in Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator. On the web however, the Web designer has no control over several factors, including the size of the browser window and the size and characteristics of available fonts.

Many designers compensate for this by wrapping their entire webpage in a fixed width box, essentially limiting it to an exact pixel-perfect value, which is a ''fixed layout''. Some create the illusion of liquidity by building the graphics for their webpage at a size larger than any current standard monitor size. Other designers say that this is bad because it ignores the preferences of the user, who might have their browser sized a specific way that they like best. These people propose a ''liquid layout'', where the size of the Web page adjusts itself based on the size of the browser window. Many prefer to set a standard browser size like 1024x728 and say on the web page that the website should be viewed with the said browser setting.
In some cases, it is difficult to create fixed layouts which work well given the amount of content needed, and the fact that one has to try to cater for the needs of all prospective users.

That no longer exists.

My 11:30 at night rewrite:

Some [[web designers]] come from a [[graphic artist]] background in print, where the artist has absolute control over the size and dimensions of all aspects of the design.{{Factdate=February 2007}} On the web however, the Web designer has no control over several factors, including the size of the browser window, the [[web browser]] used, the input devices used ([[mouse]], [[touch screen]], [[voice command]], [[text]], [[cell phone]] number pad, etc.) and the size and characteristics of available fonts.

Some designers choose to control the apperance of the elements on the screen by using specific width designations. This control may be achieved through the use of a [[HTML]] table-based design, or through the use of CSS. Whenever the text, images, and layout of a design do not change as the browser changes, this is referred to a ''fixed width design.'' Proponents of fixed width design prefer the control over the look and feel of the site and the prescision placement of objects on the page. Other designers choose a liquid design. A liquid design is one, like [[Wikipedia]], where the design moves to flow content into the whole screen, or a portion of the screen, no matter what the size of the browser window. Proponents of ''liquid design'' prefer to use all the screen space available. Liquid design can be achieved through the use of [[CSS]], by avoiding styling the page alltogether, or by using HTML tables set to a percentage of the page. Both liquid and fixed design developers must make descisions about how the design should [[degrade]] on higher and lower screen resolutions. Sometimes the [[pragmatic]] choice is made to flow the design between a minimum width and a maximum width. This allows the designer to avoid coding for the browser choices making up the [[long tail]], while still using all available screen space.

Hopefully someone who doesn't "know" things like "most web designers come from print" (which is wrong in so many, many ways) will go from there. Also very annoyed by the concept that fixed width always means tables and css always means fluid. (See http://www.csszengarden.com/ for lots and lots of really nice looking fixed width (and liquid) CSS designs.)