Re: Strict DTD a new twist

I am getting the impression we are blurring structure and presentation again
(like it isn't inherently blurred enough!)

The *content* of the site can be presented one way for a browser and another
for a smaller screen.  Why try to present the images and other content on a
small screen?  If the site is dedicated to displaying graphical
representations of famous paintings, the display might be essential to
achieving the site's purpose....but otherwise, why try to replicate an IE5.5
view of a web page on a 2-inch screen?

If the site is intended to sell chocolates, then perhaps the content could
indeed be presented in a way to make it possible to order a gift delivered
while accessing from a portable device in the middle of the Sahara...without
use of images or other components that makes sense in a browser but not on a
PA-type platform.

The data a site presents...the informational content...can be stored in a
markup such as XML that allows it to be presented one way for a platform
such as a browser, in another format for a cell phone and yet another for a
text-to-speech application.  This is a powerful tool for us...

D

----- Original Message -----
From: "Captain F.M. O'Lary" <ctfuzzy(at)canopy.net>


It sounds (so far) like we are split between the idea that these little
devises are not really going to take off, and the idea that we will indeed
need to create "special" pages for them.

Personally, my crystal ball is a little foggy on this one.

I can see a solid market segment for them (traveling corporate types), but
I can also see a lot of frustration associated with their use ("normal" web
sites on a 2X2 screen) that could easily render them to much of a pain to
be worth using.

I guess browser detect scrips are for the most part reliable enough to be
*able* to detect the viewer agent, but are our customers willing to spend
the money to have a dynamically generated web site built . . . I think not
- in most cases.

SO . . .

Where are we headed?

I vote for public access terminals. Deployed conceptually like pay phones
are now.

I think this is an easy intellectual leap. I also think those "mini
browsers" will actually help further this idea. Hey, even if my company
GAVE me one of these devises, I have the feeling I would be willing to pay
$10.00 for 30 minutes on a "normal" size terminal pretty quickly after
trying to read a normal web site on a 2X2 screen!

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