Re: Suggestion for HTML Text Format Elements

Ian Graham (igraham@utirc.utoronto.ca)
Wed, 5 Jul 95 10:18:14 EDT

Peter Flynn wrote:
>
> >Just a quick idea: NCSA Mosaic has a "Style Window" which lets people adjust
> >the display carateristics for various tags. I would love to see some "market
> >research" to find out what sort of people actually used this feature (if any)
>
> Probably not many. Those who are "font-aware" (and who have something
> on their system other than the default Times/Ariel or Mac fontcruft)
> probably make some use of it, but otherwise I suspect you're right.
>
> > just go ahead and do whatever they want. And the most scary thing to me is
> > not that some less than ideal tags might find their way into HTML, but
> > rather that in the attempts of the various commercial vendors to outdo each
> > other we will be left with a mass of incompadible crap.
>
> "will be" ? :-)

Well, to be fair, most Netscape additions are "safe", in as they
are largely phrase-level emphasis elements, and don't butcher the
display of "Netscape-HTML" documents by non-Netscape capable browsers.

As for browser customization -- I actually do use it - it's very convenient
for making public presentations, using HTML as a poor-man's PowerPoint.
A nice bright blue 24 Point Helvetica font looks great on a metallic
grey background. And yes, I will even admit to using the Netscape
color tags in addition to browser font/color configuration controls!
(Yes, I too am a Netscape-aholic!)

Ian