Re: Netscape 4.0 press release at their server

Jonathan L Neuenschwander wrote:

>  * Absolute positioning. Content designers can now specify precisely
where a 
>    block of HTML (which can contain images, links, rich text,
plug-ins, and 
>    applets) is placed on a page using x and y coordinates. 

How great is absolute positioning when you don't know the size of the
window? With CSS1 you can use both absolute measurements and
measurements relative to window width (and hopefully relative to window
height in a future spec).
 
>  * Layering. Designers can specify the z-order of objects so that
blocks of 
>    HTML can be layered above or below other blocks of HTML. 

Too bad this feature wasn't in CSS1. It would be very useful for titles
where a line of small text overlays the following line of large text.
Although this can be done in CSS1 with negative margins, the second
line must precede the first to be rendered 'under' it, making the text
incompatible with non-CSS1-capable UAs.

>    ... JavaScript and style sheets enable dynamic manipulation of 
>    the styles, and thus the entire look of the page.

CSS attributes under control of JavaScript? COOL... if NetScape can get
the bugs out of their JavaScript interpreter.

> I could find no specific mention of CSS either.

In <http://home.netscape.com/comprod/one/white_paper.html>, under 'HTML
FORMS', is the line

"Galileo and future releases of Navigator will continue to enhance HTML
as an application front end, and plan to add such features as advanced
field-validation and formatting capabilities, direct field positioning,
and CSS style sheets."

I hope they mean it.

Re JavaScript bugs: has anyone visited <http://home.netscape.com/>
using MSIE 3.0 and used the "new table of contents pop-up window"?

If you try to use that pop-up window you'll get JavaScript errors. The
first one is caused by a line of code 'searchWin.refer = self'. The
'refer' property is not in the JavaScript documentation. I am _not_
suggesting this a malicious effort to prompt bug reports by MSIE users.
As someone once said, "Never impute to malice what can easily be
ascribed to ignorance."

David Perrell

Received on Wednesday, 16 October 1996 14:26:35 UTC