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Volume Number: 11
Issue Number: 4
Column Tag: The Editor’s Viewpoint
The Editor’s Viewpoint 
By Scott T Boyd, Editor
It’s a Flat World Out On The Web
This month I wanted to talk about two things - the World Wide Web, and OpenDoc.
While mulling it over, I ran across a Usenet posting by Mark Hanrek of The
Information Workshop, and decided to let him have at it. Here’s his guest editorial.
We welcome your comments at editorial@xplain.com - Ed stb
And Now Here’s Mark
Every time I communicate about the aspects of the WWW standard that are deeply
flawed, I look for existing examples of things done right to prove my point. And every
time, OpenDoc comes up.
It will be great if the OpenDoc work is having any influence at all on those who
are in control of the Web page standard, because the current WWW path is really quite
unfortunate for us all.
I realize that the Web page standard started life as an ad-hoc thing that turned out
to be useful, it caught on, and then spread. But now that the rest of the world has
grabbed onto it, there really needs to be the courage to stop and set things straight, and
to do it properly.
The Fatal Flaw
The Web page people seem to have their heads in a ‘computer printout’ and
‘linear list’ space. The term ‘inline graphics’ is revealing. I get the feeling they
thought it was cool to leave out the specification for the absolute position of objects on
a page. They ‘leave it up to the interpretation of the particular browser’. On the
Macintosh alone, one gets three completely different interpretations using Netscape,
Mosaic, and MacWeb respectively.
That’s bad. This is a fatal flaw. And unfortunately, one we will have to live with
somehow.
This is the reason no one can create a WYSIWYG HTML editor on the Mac, even
though there are umpteen tools on the Mac one can use to author one in short order,
such as HyperCard, SuperCard, Prograph, ClarisWorks HTML XTND, class libraries
used with Symantec and MetroWerks environments, and eventually, OpenDoc.
Attempting to author an editor puts one in the position of having to take a stand on
which is the right way to display things. A support mess. Lots of dissatisfied people.
Why bother!
As a result, everyone relents, and has little choice but to rally around one
browser (Netscape). This kills competition, and, well, lots of other essential
elements.
What’s Happening Here
Web pages are for display, and must be interactive, regardless of what anyone says. If
anyone were to go out and design a cross-platform standard for the display of
interactive multi-media, and do it in a manner that stood on the shoulders of what we
have already learned, addressed itself to the unknown needs of the future, and
accommodated the commercial realities that motivated it in the first place......they
would be designing and creating something like OpenDoc, not HTML.
When one takes the HTML standard, and performs a comparison against OpenDoc,
well, it’s quite shocking. HTML starts us back at the beginning of computer time.
So much wasted energy... So many professionals using their slick WYSIWYG
editors on their GUI workstations, struggling with the equivalent of editing Postscript
directly to try and get results that look halfway decent after surviving the
non-deterministic ‘interpretations’ of Netscape, Mosaic, and other Web browsers.
[shaking head] What a sad mess. I am embarrassed to be associated with it. And
powerless of influence it. If you try to tell them anything, then ‘you just don’t
understand’. I can’t help but feel the SGML people have their vise grip on things ’cuz
it’ll be their last hurrah. :)
You’re dang right I’m bummed. But there is hope. With OpenDoc illuminating a
more appropriate way, perhaps life will take one of its funny twists and turns
sometime in the near future.
Go Team!
Thankfully, OpenDoc exists, and is one of the most inspired, well-conceived,
accommodating, courageous, and honestly handled American technology developments I
have ever witnessed in my twenty three years of computer design and engineering.
I say all of this as a vote of confidence, a show of respect, and as encouragement to
the OpenDoc team.
Well done.
- Mark Hanrek, The Information Workshop, hanrek@cts.com
0 The Information Workshop http://www.electriciti.com/~infoman/
SuperCard Home Page http://www.electriciti.com/~supercrd/
Sorry You Missed Woodstock?
Get your early reservation in now for MacHack X (June 22-24) and save yourself
some dough. Line up some hacking buddies, and get ready for The Best Hack Contest
(sponsored by yours truly) - it’s a great way to be a part of the 10th Annual MacHack
experience. e-mail expotech@aol.com, check out http://www.hax.com/HackContest
and call Expotech at (313) 882-6942.
“If you stay awake the whole time, it’s only 8 cents per minute!”
- Keith Stattenfield, someone who never sleeps at MacHack
“ they give good prizes... :)”
- Doug McKenna, Mathemaesthetics
Food For Thought
Macintosh: Changing the world, one person at a time! (I wish they’d hurry up!)
- Chris De Salvo, phixus@deltanet.com
Does anyone in the Fed understand the concept of time-delayed feedback loops?
- Jorg ‘jbx’ Brown