Re: 1.5: Discuss link characteristics?

Martin Bryan wrote:
> 
> At 17:13 9/2/97 -0800, Jon Bosak wrote:
> > I also persist in the belief
> >that presentation and behavior are at root the same thing, but the
> >list above has persuaded me for the moment that it's more useful to
> >talk about all of this under the heading of behavior rather than
> >presentation.
> 
> They are different. Presentation is concerned with how people recognize that
> there is behaviour associated with the text: do they prefer underlined text,
> a different colour, an in-line icon, a marginal note. These things are
> controllable through user preference, and are therefore overridable at
> client side. Colour-blind users must be able to use icons, whereas text only
> viewers must be able to replace icons by some textual indication of the
> possibility of action.
> 
> Behaviour is not up to the user, it is up to the author. It is the
> author/server that has to control what happens when the link is selected by
> the user. Except in rare cases the user should not be able to change the
> action that selecting a link causes.This is why you must separate
> presentation from behaviour.

This is also in accordance with the way most people think about these 
issues.  It is my expectation that I can use a button or a hotspot or 
a voice recognition system and still get the same behavior.

> I like this terminology (except for the termini - how the hell do I present
> Gard du Nord or Waterloo to users?)

Termini and terminus look baked.  I don't like these.  Just trying to 
say them in a presentation makes one feel one is back in college.
 
> >B. Link traversal
> >

> This would be better called Link Action. Traversal is not something
> non-rocket scientists understand. What most users understand by clicking on
> a hotspot is that some action should take place. This is what the
> behavioural side of the equation covers.

That is much better.  Traversal is overworked and action expresses
precisely 
the right notion.

len

Received on Monday, 10 February 1997 09:54:46 UTC