Re: Inlined image format

jonm@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Jon E. Mittelhauser)
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 14:10:09 CST
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To: ellson@hotsand.att.com, www-talk@www0.cern.ch
From: jonm@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Jon E. Mittelhauser)
Subject: Re: Inlined image format
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At 02:45 PM 1/25/94 EST, ellson@hotsand.att.com wrote:
>> From: jonm@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Jon E. Mittelhauser)
>> 
>> The advantage to using Gifs, however, is that the document will be viewable
>> in all browsers that support inlined images.  If you add a new format, the
>> document will only be viewble by a very limited set of people...
>> 
>> At least in terms of Mosaic, we have currently only agreed to support gifs 
>> and xbms on all three platforms...
>
>Perhaps I'm missing something, but why does the capability of the
>browser affect the viewability of a document?  Why do all the browsers
>have to have the same capabilities?

Because they are viewing the document in the browser?  They don't
*have* to have the same capabilities but most document authors want
to know a minimum set that all will support.  I (as an HTML author)
know that if I create a document using inlined gifs that any browsers
which support inlined images (e.g. GUI browsers) will display the 
document as I intend.  The same cannot be said for any arbitrary
format...

>If a browser is extended to view TIFFs inline why can't I indicate
>that in the .mailcap?  If the browser is not capable of viewing inline
>then the .mailcap can direct the image to an external viewer.
>

You are being extremely X-centric here.  Most of the world isn't running
X-windows.  

Also, inlined images and external images have a very different use in
practice.  If I find a document that has 10 inlined images that are
links to other pages or files and they are launched into 10 external
windows how in the world do I know which is which?!?


-Jon

---
Jon E. Mittelhauser (jonm@ncsa.uiuc.edu)
Research Programmer, NCSA                          (NCSA Mosaic for MS Windows)
More info <a href="http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/People/jonm/jonm.html">here</a>