WYSIWYG Editor???? -Reply

[Dan Lester]

Personally, I'm not sure that ANYTHING is standards
compliant, because there aren't any standards.  Yeah, I know
about 3.2 and so forth.  But you'll find that on things that ARE
standards compliant that different browsers interpret them
differently.  Not just between NS3 and NS4, but also between
NS3 and IE3, and I've not had time to even try IE4 yet.  
Personally, I like the composer in NS4, and know that it'll be
released for real (out of beta) later next week.  In this shop we
design for maximum compatibility between IE3 and NS3, and
look at pages in both.  We do NOT consider earlier NS or IE
versions, and we certainly do NOT consider lynx viewers. 
Call us elitist if you want, but that's the way it is.  We also
carefully AVOID most graphics other than simple, tasteful
backgrounds, a few useful buttons or images, and do NOT
get into fancy layout stuff.

I also like PageMillWin2.0 and FrontPage97.  Again, they do
things somewhat differently, and the output will be interpreted
somewhat differently, particularly when you're using tables or
other methods of trying to do "pretty layout" things like you'd
do with PageMaker or something similar.  Even now HTML
still doens't have "standards" or even "standard
interpretations", and may not for some time, as the browser
wars continue.  

The other difference between "web page design" and "printed
page design" is all the variables that are in HTML, such as:
1. Limits in what the "standards" permit as compared to print.
2. The need for interfacing with different browsers is much
worse than the problem of interfacing with different printers.
3. No knowledge of what video size or color resolution the
viewer is using.  (We design for 256 colors, and the 16 color
folks may not like it....again, tough, as that is too limiting)  A
page that looks fine at 600 x 800 may be dysfunctional at
480x640, so we TRY to make things look good at both.  
4. All the variables introduced by how the user's monitor is
adjusted for contrast, colors, etc....or even if it is fading from
many years of use.

There are others.....but I just can't get too excited about
things not conforming to standards, when there just are not
any meaningful ones.  Yes, I wish there were....but I'm a
realist, not a dreamer.

cheers

dan




Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
Boise State University Library, Boise, Idaho, 83725 USA
voice: 208-385-1235   fax:  208-385-1394
dlester at bsu.idbsu.edu     OR    alileste at idbsu.idbsu.edu
Cyclops' Internet Toolbox:    http://cyclops.idbsu.edu
"How can one fool make another wise?"   Kansas, 1979.