Re: producing good HTML (was: Re: Frame -> HTML)

["Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com>]

Arlen P Walker wrote

>The news that the same HTML will look different in different browsers is
hardly
>earth-shattering.

Not only not earth shattering, that was how it was supposed to be. The
original idea was that the browser would give the user control over how
information appeared. Web page creators have been fighting back against this
idea ever since.

It just goes to show that it is not so easy as many people suppose to use
web technology to transfer power from creators to consumers. The creators
will fight you every step of the way.

For all that the W3C seeks to restore abstraction to the web with XML, the
overwhelming weight of content creators seems to be pushing to make HTML
more like RTF: a precise, non-negotiable format language.

Though I am a creator, on this issue I stand with the consumers. It is right
and good that the consumer, not the creator should control how information
appears in a browser. I would pay good money for a browser that gave me real
control.

But that control won't come through co-operation from creators who
voluntarily deliver more abstract forms of information, it will come through
smart software that strips out their prescriptive formatting and give me
back control against their will.

---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Communicator
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com