Re: question and answer, style guide?

Robert Raisch (raisch@cthulhu.control.com)
Mon, 2 Nov 1992 11:15:18 -0500 (EST)


Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1992 11:15:18 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Raisch <raisch@cthulhu.control.com>
Subject: Re: question and answer, style guide?
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
In-Reply-To: <9211011606.AA00294@www3.cern.ch>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.03.9211021115.E272-b100000@cthulhu.control.com>

On Sun, 1 Nov 1992, Tim Berners-Lee wrote:

> Sounds like somone ought to be buying you a workstation for Christmas :-)
> But I realize that users tend not to use/have X, even now.
> 

Even now?  Tim, this has been a sore spot with me for quite some years
now, so you'll have to excuse this mild flame.

The assumption that many of the interesting technologies on the Internet
make is that *everyone* has a mega-pel, multi-mip workstation on their
desk.  This is simply not the case.  The vast majority of users on the
Internet have dialin or tty based accounts, and I do not see this trend
changing in the forseeable future.  Any tool which assumes *anything*
about the hardware resources of the user is (IMHO) a bad thing. 

Don't get me wrong, WWW is a marvelous tool, and with the various X-based
client implementations, it is a truely useful and intuitive approach to
the presentation of information.  But I would suggest that X-based
solutions are as useful as a Lamborgini Countach for everyday city driving.

*PLEASE* continue to develop WWW with a keen awareness of the requirements
of the Everyman(person)!

	</rr>
--
Everything is deeply intertwingled.  -Nelson