Software's new clothes
Article Abstract:
The software industry promotes the philosophy that large applications are necessary and they continue to tempt users with an increasing array of space-consuming features that are often irrelevant and inconsistent. Learning the feature-heavy applications is difficult and moving between applications harder still. The point of big software is to lock up users with programs that are too large to give away on floppy and to draw in customers with a bewildering array of features, shortcuts and concepts that take a considerable amount of time to master. The alternative is integrated software, or programs that fit together neatly to accomplish different tasks. However, software that is currently marketed as integrated packages does little to accomplish this goal. The best alternative, which is not available, is to create a compositor with an open interface, so many small programs could be created to revise and create the various objects that comprise a document.
Publication Name: Newmedia
Subject: Computers and office automation industries
ISSN: 1060-7188
Year: 1995
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Hypertext is ready: HTML for home and office
Article Abstract:
Connecting a PC to a Macintosh continues to be a problem. Converter programs do not entirely solve the problem, and using plain text files is limiting. HTML (hypertext markup language) is the best text system to use and solves the cross-platform problem once and for all. HTML is widely used on the World Wide Web, that provides widespread connectivity and electronic publishing capabilities. Web viewers, such as Netscape, read HTML tags and interpret them to recreate the format on the target machine. Although this technology is primarily used for connecting around the planet, there is no reason it cannot also be used for inter-office connectivity. Web hypertext is very useful for any type of text, all that is needed is a TCP/IP connection for the computer. HTML, as opposed to programs such as Acrobat, which simulate paper on screen, gives users the capability of presenting information in its own format that can be interpreted by any desktop.
Publication Name: Newmedia
Subject: Computers and office automation industries
ISSN: 1060-7188
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
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