How big a web page can be ?

Mirch · December 30, 2008, 3:45pm

Is there a limit to the width and height of a web page ? What is that limit ?
If not can a web page go to infinity and beyond , in width and length ?

Monk · December 30, 2008, 3:56pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

math x html = postAbove

Mirch · December 30, 2008, 4:18pm

Thanks for you help but I am not a web developer so I will not understand what it means.

I am contemplating a website with no page lenght or width limits , is it possible ?

Monk · December 30, 2008, 4:22pm

so you keep scrolling and it would never end. Like infinity.
Hmmmmm
you know you could do that with pictures.
Every picture attached to every other pic in the world. Like links they keep opening.
Never stops. Like the whole globe on your click.

Mirch · December 30, 2008, 4:29pm

Yes that is what I said in first post infinity and beyond , you keep on scrolling sideways and downwards to the infinity. Looks like the site I am thinking is possible.
Are you into web development ?

Monk · December 30, 2008, 4:32pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

no

navaidishere · December 30, 2008, 6:26pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

**1. You'll need infinite content to reach infinite width or length. And this used to be the case, if you remember the old slashdot comment system without pagination.

Google has the capacity to show all their results in just one page but they don't, why? Saves bandwidth, lower load times, responsive sites, and above all "less is more".
Depending upon the subject of the website, design the UI according to the eye movement guidelines. Our eye processes things differently for various subjects, hence we process images differently then we do content. And content on science goes differently then news item.
The best thing to do is to design for 800x600[not exact subtract 60px to 80px] and then instead of having fixed resolutions, apply liquid design elements in your CSS. That way the page stretches according to your screen size. Again you'll have to mark MAX widths so that your design doesn't break.**

Monk · December 30, 2008, 6:34pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

once I saw a page I scrolled it for a light year and It didnt finished.
And I scrolled it at the speed of light too.

navaidishere · December 30, 2008, 6:45pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

^^^ That used to be the case with SlashDot comments as well. No one really cares much about the comments posted near at the end; even if they are great.

Mirch · December 30, 2008, 6:57pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

So that is possible.

danday_wala · January 1, 2009, 4:29pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

Mirch yaar there is no infinite in web page length or width. At some width or length it will chop the contents.

I don't know that number, but still it is NOT infinite, :)

navaidishere · January 1, 2009, 5:56pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

Absolutely not. Browser renders whatever HTML you feed it, if you don't use pagination in your code, the browser won't chop it.

danday_wala · January 2, 2009, 12:19am

Re: How big a web page can be ?

OK, lets see.

Modern web servers have controls in place to detect buffer overflows and DoS attacks. Webservers and also web browsers have a limit on web page size (in terms of MBs). And you can not put this limit to infinite...! Mostly it is few megabytes.

So now if you try to create a huge web page from dynamic contents, say with 1 million entries, you might need more space than a webserver or your web browser can allow. And you get an error message.

So there you have it.... a limit!

navaidishere · January 2, 2009, 6:41pm

Re: How big a web page can be ?

**Couple of things, we're both going down the theory lane.

My theory being browsers render whatever HTML you feed them despite it being good/bad/long/short.

Your theory being there has to be code in place to chop off content since there must be a limit.

In either case, we don't have a definitive proof. You can impose theoretical limits of buffers or file size limits imposed by the file system but to me they are easily discounted since good programming practices dictates that you implement dynamic buffering hence when one buffer overflows, its data can be temporarily contained in another. Where does it ends? You can impose the file size limit of NTFS, 4GB but then again, Microsoft chops off the portion larger then 4GB and still is able to save it. For example, I'm able to download 720p BluRay discs off newsgroups, usually 7GB-9GB.

I can try posing this question to WebKit people for a definitive answer. Its an interesting one :D

**