Re: Netscape 4.0 press release at their server

>    It's an interesting situation. When Netscape first came out they were 
> leaders and pushed the web forward. We saw page after page with "This 
> page best viewed with Netscape" plastered on them. Now, however, it seems 
> that Netscape is holding back progress. 

They're still pushing things forward, it's just that not everyone wants to
go in the direction they're pushing.  :-)  That's nothing new, I remember
people griping about backgrounds and text/link colors too.  I guess it's 
all relative.

> How many web developers of large 
> sites are not able to start using CSS because they know that most of the 
> people coming to their site are using Netscape. And CSS is not the only 

I'm not following your line of reasoning.  Why are they unable?  Even if 
CSS is fully implemented in NS 4.0, it's going to take time for a majority
of the current user base to upgrade.  2.0 is still very prevalent out there,
never mind 3.0.

An essential point of style sheets is that they do not break the content if
they're not used.  With that in mind, what's preventing these developers
from adding style sheets today?  There are some large sites out there that 
have them already...

At any rate, let's wait to see what's in 4.0 before we start condemnimg
them for their lack of support.

> thing. I'd love to start using the OBJECT tag, and I'd really like to be 

Amen to that!  I waited for FIG, now I'm waiting for OBJECT.  According to
their info on 4.0, the OBJECT tag *is* supported.  The question remains, 
as with style sheets, just *how* supported is it?

> Netscrape. So what are we to do? Are we to now start putting "This page 

No, you do what you should be doing now, implement new features in such a
way that your page doesn't break when viewed with an older browser.  

> designed for MS Internet Explorer" on our pages? (I've seen this, BTW). I 

I saw my first such tag two days after IE 1.0 appeared.  Again, nothing new
to this.


Jonathan


      jonathan@ecn.purdue.edu  _/ _/       _/    _/   And it would of worked
    QUESTION AUTHORITY --     _/ _/       _/_/  _/  if it hadn't been for
  And the authorities        _/ _/       _/  _/_/  those meddling kids and
will question you.    _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/    _/  their stupid dog

Received on Wednesday, 16 October 1996 15:09:10 UTC