retrostan,May 5 2005, 03:23 PM wrote:

Hi TMBC,
My browser (IE) is showing PH in a narrow window in the middle of the screen.  Makes it difficult to read posts.   There are large borders on either side of the active page, making the bordered website condensed into the middle.
Shouldn't it automatically widen?
Rob

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The short answer is "no, it shouldn't".  At least that's the design decision we made.  If you're not interested in the technical mumbo-jumbo, you can stop reading, but in the interest of full disclosure...

If I had my choice, the entire site would be designed to "scale" to fit any browser size on every platform.  But the monkeys who code web browsers make that an astoundingly hard thing to do.

The borders help us with layout and organization for the rest of the site, and it's a standard practice in web design to leave "gutters" on the side of the page to give the viewers eye a place to "rest".  So we decided to sacrifice some screen area for the sake of consistency, maintenance, and readability. 

Maybe someday all browsers will behave the same way on all computers, and we can start doing sensible things with web design.  And maybe pigs will fly.  Hey, it could happen!