Re: The Amaya Overview Page

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 10:59:19 -0400
"John Russell" <ve3ll@rac.ca> wrote:

> The following is the opening paragraph on the Amaya Overview Page.
> 
> Amaya Overview
> Amaya is a complete web browsing and authoring environment and comes 
> equipped with a WYSIWYG style of interface, similar to that of the most 
> popular commercial browsers. With such an interface, users do not need to 
> know the HTML or CSS languages.
> 
> I think that the last line is really misleading for those who are
>  investigating Amaya for the first time.  There is no way around not 
> knowing what tags do what for a document prior to creating one.
>  Amaya does not even use walk thru dialogs for setting up a document.

I don't agree with you.
If you want to create a simple HTML document, you only need to know
what is a heading, a paragraph, an image, etc.
You need to know a minimum of HTML to generate more sophisticated
documents. It's the same for new Word users. They need to learn about
the tool to create more sophisticated documents.

> Amaya does many things well.  It guarantees that documents are valid
> as created. It provides an immediate view of the look of the document.
> It incorporates XML, SVG, and MathML editing and display...
> But it definitely is not a (NEEDS NO HTML KNOWLEDGE) type
> of editor. Those tend to be very superficial, limited in scope and 
> expandability and are thrown away as soon as the author sees 
> something better....  
> 
> My favorite type of editor is macro driven (ie one needs to know html)
> with a way of calling a browser for viewing.
> 
> Some prefer the Drag and Drop approach of DreamWeaver et clones
> 
> Amaya is a distinct style of its own, menu driven but with validation
> enforced  and  advanced languages. It is very effective in an
> academic environment where elegance and correctness are stressed.
> 
> But PLEASE remove reforances to NO HTML skills required.  It does
> the Amaya editor/browser a disservice.
> --
> john russell ve3ll@rac.ca [those are L's as in LLAMA]
> http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3ll
> http://home.cogeco.ca/~trains
> http://home.cogeco.ca/~cipher
> 
> 
> 


     Irene.
-----
Irène Vatton                     INRIA Rhône-Alpes
INRIA                               ZIRST
e-mail: Irene.Vatton@inria.fr       655 avenue de l'Europe
Tel.: +33 4 76 61 53 61             Montbonnot
Fax:  +33 4 76 61 52 07             38334 Saint Ismier Cedex - France

Received on Thursday, 19 August 2004 08:13:24 UTC