- From: Daniel W. Connolly <connolly@w3.org>
- Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 23:09:52 -0400
- To: cbullard@hiwaay.net (Len Bullard)
- Cc: john@eco.powernet.co.uk (John Middlemas), "hyper-theory@math.byu.edu" <hyper-theory@math.byu.edu>, "www-html@w3.org" <www-html@w3.org>
In message <9605271526.AA23037@fly.HiWAAY.net>, Len Bullard writes: > > The dead ends with HTML probably >start in using a declarative root language. I'll pick on Len because I know he won't take it personally. But I'm seeing this claim stated more strongly in lots of forums. It takes the form of: "Let's add <IF> and <WHILE> to HTML!" "With javascript, you can do anything!" "HTML is the MS-DOS of the internet" HTML is declarative and limited on purpose. If it were turing complete, the only reliable way to consume the information in a document would be to "run" it. (Just ask the search engine vendors who are trying to deal with Javascript). In order to make folks aware of the conscious decision behind this limitation, I'm considering reviving an old essay of mine and revising it for publication as a W3C working draft: Toward a Formalism for Communication On the Web Feb 1994 http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/html-spec/html-essay.html Dan p.s. > The HTML >model has limits that begin to show as more folks try >to add more functionality and cannot agree on it. HTML >should be an architecture, not a DTD. Fair enough. Yet the burden of proof is still on the folks that want to see this happen. Stay tuned to: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/SGML/Activity
Received on Tuesday, 28 May 1996 23:16:52 UTC