FW: New Web Authoring Tool

[Heath Rezabek]

On Tue, 6 Aug 1996, Ernest Perez wrote:

> Here's a message about and original text referring to Akimbo Systems' new 
> Globetrotter product, supposedly the "third generation" of WWW authoring products. 
> Oregon State Printer Mike Freese put this msg out on our SEPUG (State Electronic 
> Publishing Users Group) list.   There's already been a predictable exchange on that 
> list between "raw HTML" purists and the "I don't really care how it works if it 
> works" faction.

What I would [and always will] look for in products like this is whether 
or not the HTML it generates can be validated at current or proposed 
DTDs [sort of the grammar-checker of HTML as an SGML subset], with a 
validator such as WebLint, WebTechs, or Kinder-Gentler Validator.

What's ironic about all of these is that HTML was originally [according 
to Tim Berners-Lee] designed to be handled by editors, and still I have 
yet to see one that can validate, even though the DTDs are freely 
available and *designed* to be machine-read.

Until these editors can render HTML that follows standards -- *any* 
standard so long as it's freely available -- I'll use them for rapid 
prototyping only, and do mop-up in their "first generation" editors 
[BBEdit, for me].  As a librarian, particularly, concern for the 
longevity and accessibility of information demands the sort of care / 
attention that those producing pages for next week's sales expo can get 
away with shirking.  Although, as Stu Weibel pointed out a while ago, 
longevity of this info is in no way guarunteed by sticking to standards, 
it is the closest thing we have.


          Heath M Rezabek  hrezabek at gslis.utexas.edu
                           http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~hrezabek/ndx.html
  GSLIS Masters Candidate  University of Texas at Austin
Technical Staff Assistant  Perry-Castaneda Library EIC
HTML Writers Guild Member  http://www.hwg.org/