Adobe Acrobat and HTML

[Bob Long]

At 12:06 PM 10/22/96 -0700, Stan Furmanak wrote:

>I think you miss the point as to what SGML and HTML are intended to do
>which is describe the structure of the document because it is the
>informational content of the document that is important not the format. The
>structure of the document is especially critical to the successful indexing
>and retrieval of SGML documents.

I know. I've heard these arguments. I'm familiar with the genesis of SGML
and HTML. I also know that they were developed in the early '90's for use on
dumb terminals in a text based environment. (Ever wonder why links are
underlined as as a default? You only need that for a monochrome display.)
But the web exploded with the development of graphical browsers. And with
that comes a change in the way pages are developed.

>Because you can't anticipate what kind of WWW browser anyone accessing your
>documents will use and what it can and can not do i.e. screen size, fonts,
>colors, etc. it may be your efforts are a bit wasted. I've seen some
>beautifully constructed documents that were rather useless for Lynx users
>or people who simply haven't upgraded to the latest and greatest.

No, you can't. But to the best of my knowledge 80-90 percent of the people
on the web use either Navigator or Internet Explorer. My pages look great on
both of these browsers. I don't think that's a bad ratio.

>Every HTML manual I've read states explicitly that you shouldn't design
>your documents based on what they look like on your browser. Instead, make
>them clearly organized, informational and well written.

Well, not EVERY manual. But yes, I agree with your statement. I think all
documents should have those attributes. I just think it's worthwhile to go
the extra mile and try to make it look nice as well. A book that is
informative and well-written isn't of much use to you if it gives you a
headache to read it.
        I realize this is an on-going discussion on the web. My hope is that
one day we can have the best of both worlds. As I stated, form and function
can work together. If we work for it.

Bob