Re: HTML Streaming

On Wed, 27 Aug 1997 Albertfine@aol.com wrote:

> HTML streaming basically; organizes the tags in a HTML document
> to send what is displayed first. Tags that are not displayed such as 
> keywords, signatures etc. would be added at the end of the file. These

I don't think it is very useful to just organize tags. How about SGML
comments? Or a list, e.g.:

<UL>
<LI>List item one
<LI>List item two</LI>
</UL>

(The end-tag of the first LI element is inferred by the beginning of another
LI element, yet the second LI has an explicit end-tag.)

> protocols would probably be used by HTML editors. HTML streaming also
> involves two tags; the events tag and the stream tag. The event tag would 

Does "tag" here refer to the tags of SGML elements, or something else?

> list all the tags in the HTML file with rough descriptions so the browser 
> knows what to expect. The stream tag would tell the browser you can display 
> this now, it will not be changed. For example, someone mentioned the problem 
> with loading tables. The HTML editor could calculate the impact of size 
> elements in the table tag. It would add a stream tag to points in the table. 

HTML 4.0 already incorporates mechanisms to specify the size of the table
(and the cells) to faciliate "streaming". I don't see a need to add "stream
tags" to "stream" tables.

> The stream tag would tell the browser to display the unfinished table knowing
> that it will not be changed. Or the HTML editor could add a rough description
> of the table to the events tag. You would have the table streamed without 

What is meant by a "rough description"? Would the TITLE attribute fit this
purpose?

> major changes to the table tag or using a proprietary tag. I don't think 

But awkward (IMO) tags must be used in place of the fine table model in HTML
4.0...

> tables are the last or only example of the need for HTML streaming. I don't 

How about paragraphs, lists, etc. Does the "HTML editor" have to
"precalculate" (more like wildly guessing) the size of rendered elements?
This is impossible because various UAs render elements differently.

-- 
Steve Cheng     elmert@ipoline.com     <http://home.ipoline.com/~elmert/>

Received on Thursday, 28 August 1997 00:03:15 UTC