Lance Jones <sword@islandnet.com> wrote:
<i>&gt; Netscape, in its pursuit to</i>
<i>&gt; increase its 80% (and shrinking?) share of the Web browser market, is</i>
<i>&gt; creating an "operating system" with *no* consistency or uniformity. I have 3</i>
<i>&gt; plug-ins out of a possible 50, my friend has none, my sister has 9 -- who</i>
<i>&gt; will content developers design their Web site for?? My guess is that the</i>
<i>&gt; smart ones will choose to design for the lowest common denominator. In other</i>
<i>&gt; words, a plug-in-less browser = maximum viewing audience.</i>
I agree with Lance; Ithink Netscape, with it's plug-in approach, has gone
down a dead
end.
I also would suggest that java may not be all it's cracked up to be.
In the meantime, look at what Microsoft has quietly done. It has
followed Netscape's nasty lead by bringing on its own proposed tag
set - and just as Netscape's tag extensions were widely and happily
adopted by a viewing public hungry for graphics, so Microsoft's
browser will gain acceptance with its &lt;marquee&gt; tag, its tags that
allow for individualized color in each table cell, its &lt;dynsrc&gt; tag,
etc. The whole goal of browsers is to put powerful tools in the hands
of authors and viewers, who DON'T HAVE TO KNOW THE CODE.
Java may well become the hidden operating system of the Net - so long as
page authors don't have to know how to use it.
Which would you prefer? Learning C++ and java for two years in order
to be able to write an applet that scrolls text, or just using
Microsoft's &lt;marquee&gt; tag?
Naturally, you can download somebody else's applet. But it's still a
lot easier - and looks better, and operates more cleanly - to use the
&lt;marquee&gt; tag.
Bottom line: a browser is a tool for delivering sophisticated design
tools into the hands of artists and authors; the easier it is to use,
and the more flexibility and bells and whistles it has, the more
popular it will be.
You would have thought that Netscape wouldn't have forgotten this;
but it looks like they have.
Yours in marketing
Geoffrey Baker ------------------------------- Editor
Southern Maine Coastal Beacon -------THE MAINE INDEX
<a href="<a href="http://www.mbeacon.com">http://www.mbeacon.com</a>">http://www.mbeacon.com</a> - email to: editor@mbeacon.com
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