Re: Concerns about HTML+ complexity

Alastair Aitken CLMS <ZPALASTAIR@CLUSTER.NORTH-LONDON.AC.UK>
Errors-To: listmaster@www0.cern.ch
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 17:08:29 +0200
Errors-To: listmaster@www0.cern.ch
Message-id: <9406161428.AA17386@dxmint.cern.ch>
Errors-To: listmaster@www0.cern.ch
Reply-To: ZPALASTAIR@CLUSTER.NORTH-LONDON.AC.UK
Originator: www-talk@info.cern.ch
Sender: www-talk@www0.cern.ch
Precedence: bulk
From: Alastair Aitken CLMS <ZPALASTAIR@CLUSTER.NORTH-LONDON.AC.UK>
To: Multiple recipients of list <www-talk@www0.cern.ch>
Subject: Re: Concerns about HTML+ complexity
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas

Ken Fox writes @ Wed, 15 Jun 1994 22:32:04 +0200

>> >We really need to think about who in the industry is in the best
>> >position to implement/control monolithic standards and monolithic browsers.
>> >It isn't CERN, NCSA or the community of Web hackers, that's for sure!
>
>and Chris Lilley replied:
>
>> I would like to see some support for this rather airy dismissal.
>> 
>> >The
>> >only people in a position to implement a monolithic browser are those with
>> >dedicated (and large) programming staffs --- such as Framemaker or Microsoft.
>> 
>> Again I would like to see a reasoned argument for this contentious statement.
>
>It's surprising that this is the first comment about my article.  I was
>going to put in more argument on this point but others here thought that it
>actually detracted from the other points that I was making.  Live and learn
>I suppose.

[much reasoned argument deleted]

My comment is to Chris Lilley ...

<flame>

As a long suffering Windows 3.1 user I would not be very happy delegating
the task of developing a character set for my pocket calculator to
Microsoft.  Cobol, love it or hate it, is a far better paradigm.  The
COmmon Business Oriented Language was a 1950's US Government inspired
software standard for a specific purpose, you might not like cobol but it
is still used today in almost exactly the same form as it first appeared. 
I would favour a (preferably inter-) governmental standard for a
distributed information system (www, gopher - call it what you will).

If this is not possible then why not CERN or NCSA, after all the folks at
these sites have already achieved a great deal in terms of information
architecture (HTML) and distribution (httpd).

Don't forget - Windows 3.1 was shipped as marketable with some thousands of
known bugs - do we want this to happen to cyberplace ???

</flame>

grunt

Al. <-:< (zpalastair@grid.unl.ac.uk)