Re: Vanquishing the "Digital Divide"

|There is also the matter of whether XHTML will be accessible by every
|platform which can currently access HTML. The *last* thing we should
|ever do is widen what Jesse Jackson called the "digital divide". The
|NUMBER ONE priority should be extending access to third-world countries,
|ghetto neighborhoods, the homeless, the infirmed, and everyone else on
|the planet. The World-Wide Web is supposed to bring us together; it must
|NEVER do the opposite. If XML is to be the new language, then developers
|MUST write XML browsers to run on EVERY platform which currently has an
|HTML browser (and they'll run in a smaller footprint, right?). This
|means DOS 3.3, Win3.1, MacOS 6.0, AmigaOS, PalmOS, NewtonOS, NextStep,
|etc. If it can dial into the 'Net, it will need an XML browser.

I think that this "digital divide" is the very reason why XML is being
created. Newer features of HTML, (or rather, the discontinued use of
deprecated elements and use of CSS) has not seen any popularity, and
probably won't, because of a marketing drive "for the site to look good on
all platforms." Because of this, the growth rate of HTML has been stunned.
It may never grow or evolve very far. The only alternative to get the web to
grow, so that it will not be completely replaced by another network with
bigger / better EVERYTHING, is to replace HTML with a language that is
similar in nature, but with the latest changes made. XML is that answer. If
you have an older machine, then how do you expect to keep up with PROGRESS?

Daniel [inanis (edf)]

Received on Tuesday, 16 March 1999 21:49:17 UTC