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I'm brand new on this group, so I apologize if this has been
asked before.

When a web page is displayed on the screen, the sender sends
text, followed by the font info and screen location.

This cause the screen to jump crazily every second or so until my
eyeballs become unscrewed.

Is there some reason why the html screens work that way?

Do you like it to act that way?

Thanks for any helpful info.

Jack

J. Yazel wrote:
> I'm brand new on this group, so I apologize if this has been asked
> before.

Not that I remember...

> When a web page is displayed on the screen, the sender sends text,
> followed by the font info and screen location.
>
> This cause the screen to jump crazily every second or so until my
> eyeballs become unscrewed.

Do you have an example URL where this occurs?

> Is there some reason why the html screens work that way?

No. Unless the author has made it do that.

> Do you like it to act that way?

Silly question. <g>

--
-bts
-This space intentionally left blank.

On Fri, 06 May 2005 17:07:43 -0400, J. Yazel <> wrote:

> When a web page is displayed on the screen, the sender sends
>text, followed by the font info and screen location.

It _may_ do this. Not all pages will show it though.

> This cause the screen to jump crazily

> Is there some reason why the html screens work that way?

Yes. If you send text first, and then the positioning, then the text
must "re-flow" to fit into the new positions. To fix this, make the
positioning information available early on.

It's rare to ask this specific question. There are many ways to build
"good design" and also "bad design". It's characteristic that most of
the "good" techniques will coincidentally also reduce the need to reflow
pages.

Things that encourage reflow:

- big <table>s used for layout. They often need to be reflowed when
the </table> tag is received.

- <img> elements where the image size isn't known until the page has
already been displayed.

- Complex pages where the correct flow can't be determined until late
in the page.

- JavaScript that changes the page layout.

On Sat, 07 May 2005 02:29:59 +0200, Andy Dingley <>
wrote:

> On Fri, 06 May 2005 17:07:43 -0400, J. Yazel <> wrote:
>
>> When a web page is displayed on the screen, the sender sends
>> text, followed by the font info and screen location.
>
> It _may_ do this. Not all pages will show it though.

See also FOUC - "flash of unstyled content" (via google).

Mitja

> From: J. Yazel <>
> When a web page is displayed on the screen, the sender sends
> text, followed by the font info and screen location.
>
> This cause the screen to jump crazily every second or so until my
> eyeballs become unscrewed.
>
> Is there some reason why the html screens work that way?
>
> Do you like it to act that way?

No, it is quite disagreeable... to avoid, put in width and height specs for
pics, movies, and whatever other objects that need a certain size. The
browser can then quickly make room for them and they pop into the
pre-alloted places gracefully...

A dormitory is best prepared with the right number of beds before the guests
arrive to avoid the confusion when the guests are already in it...

dorayme

On Fri, 06 May 2005 17:07:43 -0400, J. Yazel <> wrote:

> I'm brand new on this group, so I apologize if this has been
>asked before.
> When a web page is displayed on the screen, the sender sends
>text, followed by the font info and screen location.
> This cause the screen to jump crazily every second or so until my
>eyeballs become unscrewed.
> Is there some reason why the html screens work that way?
> Do you like it to act that way?
> Thanks for any helpful info.
> Jack
> ============================================

Thanks for all of the responses.

I'm not doing the programming. I'm referring to very many URL's that
have a "busy" display, which applies to almost all commercial displays
such as corporations, newspapers, government, etc.

I was just hoping that there might be some way to make the display
settle down.

This happens on multiple browsers, such as Opera and Firefox.

Sometimes there is an option to delay showing the page until a
specific time period has elapsed. However, I'm much too impatient
to wait and wait for that. It alo seems to reset itsel on specific
pages after a few seconds.

Jack

> From: J. Yazel <>

> Thanks for all of the responses.
>
> I'm not doing the programming. I'm referring to very many URL's that
> have a "busy" display, which applies to almost all commercial displays
> such as corporations, newspapers, government, etc.
>
> I was just hoping that there might be some way to make the display
> settle down.


OK. What should you do *using* browsers to alleviate this? It sounds like
you are on slow dial-up.

Best is this: manage your browsing in a tabbed browser: when opening a slow
link, let it open in a tab that you are not watching, ie. open or flick to
and work on another url in another tab. When you remember to come back to
the slow loading one, it will be there in all its glory for you... An
essential technique for dial-up use... If you have no tabbed browser or
don't like such, you can do similar but open links in separate windows
instead of tabs. I would get broadband if I did not do this. Try it on eBay
and look at all sorts of things in multiple tabs and you will see how good
this technique is.

dorayme

J.Yazel wrote:
> I was just hoping that there might be some way to make the display
> settle down.
> This happens on multiple browsers, such as Opera and Firefox.

Older browsers used to wait until they had downloaded the entire page
before putting it on screen.

Newer browsers will download a bit, put that onto the screen, download a
bit more, put that onto the screen and so forth. This will often result in
the page jumping about while it loads, because as the browser finds
out new information (font sizes, positions, etc), it has to go back and
redraw parts of the page that it's already shown. This behaviour is known
as "Progressive Rendering" -- that is, the browser renders the page while
it progresses.

A lot of people prefer progressive rendering because it means that they
can get started on reading the page while it is still loading.

But some people don't like it, because of the jumpiness, which can be
particularly noticable on fast computers with slow Internet connections.

Opera provides a setting to let you control progressive rendering. To
get to the setting in Opera 8, go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced >
Browsing > Loading. (The setting existed in Opera 7 too, but was kept in a
different place.)

Changing the setting to redraw after X seconds will only cause it to jump
about every X seconds (if needed). Setting it to "Redraw when loaded" will
stop progressive rendering altogether.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact