Xah's Edu Corner: Tech Geekers and their Style

[Harlan Messinger]

[followups to comp.infosystems.www.authoring stylesheets, since that's 
the only newsgroup the OP addressed where this is relevant (LISP?? what 
was he thinking?]

Xah Lee wrote:
> Sometimes you want your text to flow into multiple columns, as in
> newspaper's layout. However, as of 2005-12 this is not yet possible.
> One can make-do by hard-coding it into HTML TABLE using multiple
> columns. It is a pain because when you change your text, you have to
> manually cut and paste to justify each and every columns by
> trial-n-error.

It's also pointless since that balances the text only in *your* browser, 
using your settings. It will look unbalanced in other people's browsers.

> 
> A proposed solution is in CSS3 “Multi-column layout”, drafted in
> 2001 but not yet in any mainstream browsers as of 2005-12. See
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-css3-multicol-20010118/
> 
> With all the whizbang of styles and features in CSS2, a basic,
> necessary, functional layout feature as multi-columns is not there yet.
> This is a indication of the fatuousness of the IT industry's
> technologies and its people.

It isn't either basic or (obviously, since the world is still turning 
after all these years without it) necessary.