reading and converting web page HTML text

[Richard Gaskin]

Peter Brigham MD wrote:

> On Mar 7, 2010, at 10:51 PM, Ken Ray wrote:
>
>>
>>> Apparently numbers less than 8 are interpreted as HTML relative size
>>> and larger numbers specify point size.
>>>
>>> Could this have something to do with the recently mentioned problems
>>> with font sizes on Unix platforms? If somehow the rev unix engine is
>>> mixing these up, then something intended to be size 14 could display
>>> at size 4.  But I know very little about this stuff, it's just a
>>> thought.
>>
>> Actually it's the way web browsers handled it a long time ago when
>> "real"
>> font sizes were introduced; they had to remain backwards compatible
>> with the
>> previous method but also adopt the new one.
>
> OK. But could this be what isn't working right in Rev on the unix
> platforms, or is that unlikely?

The main issue as far as Rev goes seems to be that Rev is doing what 
Firefox still does, calculating point sizes with an assumption of 72-dpi 
resolution, while modern OSes are largely resolution-independent.

But check out the links in these posts and you'll find that only tells 
part of the story:

<http://mail.runrev.com/pipermail/use-revolution/2010-March/135800.html>
<http://mail.runrev.com/pipermail/use-revolution/2010-March/135822.html>

Like so many in the Linux world have noted, Gnome simply renders too 
big.  From the bug reports in the Gnome and Ubuntu bug databases it 
appears that there's an extra level of translation happening in Gnome, 
but before they jump on a fix they need to figure out what to do for 
backward compatibility.  Sticky issue; glad it's theirs and not mine. :)

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com
  revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv