Re: <PAGE> proposal

BearHeart / Bill Weinman (BearHeart@bearnet.com)
Sat, 23 Dec 1995 12:06:16 -0600


At 11:03 am 12/23/95 -0500, William C. Cheng wrote:
>Eric S. Raymond <esr@locke.ccil.org> wrote:

>| This objection, and all others like it, fails to address one of my central
>| points. Please try to stop thinking of <PAGE> as document-controlled
>| pagination (though I certainly want to use it that way) and start thinking
>| of it as an attempt to decouple display behavior from underlying file
>| representation.

>But it seems to me that having separate scrollable sections _couples_
>display behavior with file representation. <PAGE> doesn't seem to have
>any meaning to anything but displays (or printing, which is another kind
>of display).

Perhaps in the sense that it adds a functionality that addresses
an issue for a medium that is otherwise not supported. But in the
strict sense, it is decoupling the HTML file representation from the
display behavior of "browser-with-screen", which should not be the
only medium supported.

Someone in here earlier said that they see a "page" as being like
a "screenful" (not a direct quote)--and that's the mentality that Eric's
proposal seeks to address.

A "page" as a type of object that current HTML ignores. I agree with
Eric that we need to correct that.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* BearHeart / Bill Weinman
* BearHeart@bearnet.com * * http://www.bearnet.com/ *
* Author of The CGI Book: * http://www.bearnet.com/cgibook/ *
* 'Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers. --Shakespeare