Daniel Glazman wrote:
>
> Henri Sivonen wrote:
> >
> > Why do you suppose the author doesn't care about structure/markup?
> > If Mozilla's *Web page* editor isn't pro-intent-of-standards and
> > pro-structure, what good will it offer over the n+1 editors out
> > there that are already built around the assumption that the user
> > wants to produce presentational document using the selection-styling
> > editing paradigm?
>
> Wysiwyg editing.
Whee-hee! This is like 1996 all over again.
`Why do you use bitmapped text for your navigation, and why do
you use <FONT FACE="Helvetica" SIZE="1"> all over the place?', I
asked the editor of `The Plug' Webzine. `Letting the user read
your content in their own choice of font would be so much
friendlier -- and using text instead of GIFs would make your
pages load faster, too.'
`But I want pixel-precise control over layout', he said. `And
don't you whine at me that you're some Lynx-using geek or
whatever, because people like you are a tiny minority and I just
don't care.'
`Actually, I don't use Lynx', I replied. `But the Web is not a
WYSIWYG medium. Accept that. If you want WYSIWYG, use PDF. As it
is, having to wait for your attempts at WYSIWYG to load, and
then trying to read them in the font size which you (rather than
I) have chosen, just makes visiting your site more trouble than
it's worth.'
`So don't', he said. So I didn't.
A year later, the site <http://plug.co.nz/> had died. Today,
it redirects to a site offering this guy's Web design services.
The front page of this site is, of course, done entirely in
Flash.
> There is not a single html editor on the market using
> html as its internal format and able to do real wysiwyg editing.
Do you think that this is not for want of trying?
Perhaps there is (if you'll excuse the pun) a structural reason behind
that lack of a true WYSIWYG HTML editor?
> I want a HTML editor my father could use to write his
> book w/o learning the concepts of HTML, XML or CSS.
And I want world peace.
There are some things even the best-designed user interface just can't
do without training on the part of the user. Your father can't write a
decent book without some knowledge of literary structure, style, and
grammar. Similarly, he can't write a decent Web page without some
knowledge of markup structure, Web style
<http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/>, and hypertext grammar.
> My goal here is
> not yet-another-dreamweaver.
>...
Neither, I venture to say, is ours.
--
Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla user interface QA
Mozilla UI decisions made within 48 hours, or the next one is free
