RE: Whitespace

Fisher Mark (FisherM@is3.indy.tce.com)
Thu, 13 Jan 94 12:25:00 PST

The central problem is that different browsers have different levels of
rendering ability, which is a situation likely to continue for a long (5-10
years?) time. Case in point: at Thomson I use Windows and Windows NT to
run Cello. Once I have my Internet connection at home, I will use a
text-based browser because Windows on a 286 is unacceptably slow. Many
companies in the business world (a world that needs to become part of the
Web for the Web to really become World-Wide) are still depreciating their
286 and 8088 machines, much less having switched over to video-accelerated
486s (my work configuration). Still fewer in the world are people using
Suns, RS/6000s, HPs, ....

I like Brian Oakley's FACE idea, as an HTML editor could automagically allow
users to have bold, italics, etc. while concealing the fact (to novices)
that these are just hints to the browser. My suspicion is that if a
document is confusing when read in a single-font browser, it probably also
is confusing in a 32767-fonts with 28 different sizes and 10 different
emphasises (sp?) browser.

I see a need for both simple documents (as can be specified under HTML
Classic :) as well as glossy magazines, weather maps, mathematical papers,
road atlases, and so on. It may be that HTML will have to evolve beyond an
SGML document type to something in the same class as word-processor formats
to support the multimedia/intermedia (as in FORMS and ISMAP) documents
future authors will want to write.
======================================================================
Mark Fisher Thomson Consumer Electronics
fisherm@tcemail.indy.tce.com Indianapolis, IN

"Just as you should not underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon
traveling 65 mph filled with 8mm tapes, you should not overestimate
the bandwidth of FTP by mail."