It seems that Weinman is catching a lot of flak here at Slashdot, which is only natural since most Slashdotters belong to the "content is more important than presentation" school of thought, and believe that an elegant HTML source code is more important than any visual effects that can be achieved by mangling HTML. The thing is that Weinman is primarily an artist, and visual presentation is paramount to her (and, yes, she is quite well known among web designers). Of course, some of the code breaks in non-IE and non-Netscape browsers (or even in non-Windows versions of these browsers), and machine extraction of information becomes more difficult. This is essentially a weakness in the design of HTMl, which does not provide for specified placement of visual objects on the screen, forcing one to resort to HTML mangling to get these effects. (Plug : TeX, also a mark-up language, is much more powerful in this respect.) This is further aggravated when browsers violate the HTML specifications or implements them half-heartedly (i.e. with many bugs), prefering instead to concentrate resources on extending HTML to capture market share. So it is hardly fair to blame her for "advocating" this style of coding. If you want to get visual control, HTMl mangling is a necessary evil.
Fortunately, cascading style sheets (CSS), which allows one to associate positioning information with every HTML tag while preserving an elegant HTML source code, promises to satisfy both the HTML purists and the web designers. Unfortunately, CSS is still very inconsistently implemented by browsers. Still there is hope. If only the browsers will implement CSS properly as specified by the W3 consortium, and not try to extend it again.
P.S. Slashdot should not have posted this article at all. Wrong audience. Webreference was the correct forum.
Slashdot Mirror
The root of the MS monopoly is its dominance in the OS sector. Breaking up the company into two pieces leaves the OS monopoly intact.
.nytimes.com/library/opinion/krugman/043000krug.ht ml for a more detailed discussion by Paul Krugman.
See http://partners
90% of the internet runs on Cisco's expensive hardware ... Implication : Cisco's management has created a profitable monopoly, buy Cisco stock.
... Implication : Unisys's management is crazy, dump Unisys stock.
90% of internet websites use Unisys's free GIF format
Fortunately, cascading style sheets (CSS), which allows one to associate positioning information with every HTML tag while preserving an elegant HTML source code, promises to satisfy both the HTML purists and the web designers. Unfortunately, CSS is still very inconsistently implemented by browsers. Still there is hope. If only the browsers will implement CSS properly as specified by the W3 consortium, and not try to extend it again.
P.S. Slashdot should not have posted this article at all. Wrong audience. Webreference was the correct forum.