.
Relativity#
I used to work for a company that insisten all emails were sent as HTML using a specific font. They thought they were being clever, until I showed them what it looked like on my home PC which did not have their font installed and then I pointed out that many of their customers were getting the same very amateurish looking text.
The problem was that the company was telling the customers how they had to read the emails. They weren't letting the customers pick the best font - what if they had poor eyesight - the company didn't care about their business!!
Unfortunately, without html, some of the very common formatting isn't possible. It really is annoying not being able to emphasise part of the text. And so many times I've tried to put things in a tabulated table, knowing that only if people happen to use the same font will they see it the same.
So, what we need is a specification that lets people emphasis text, without telling them how to display it. ONe that doesn't insist you have Micro$oft fonts installed on your spectrum PC, but which lets you EMPHASISE.
So I am suggesting that creole should be a relative specification. That is to say, the specification says how parts of the text relate to each other not how those parts will be displayed absolutely.
ABSOLUTE#
- Times-New-Roman
- Red
- 12point/pica
- position on screen.
- Code?
Relative#
- stronger emphasis
- different from the rest of the text
- more important
- raised up
- smaller text
- included as a note (how the note is displayed is absolute)
- included as a quote (how displayed is absolute)
- Tables - describe the relative layout of items