Ian Hickson wrote:
Server-based offline Web apps are applications that are served by a remote
server and then cached locally; this is very different from non-Web cases
such as documentation on a local filesystem or on CD-ROMs. In the case of
non-Web content, the use of HTML is an academic point, since any format
would work as well.
Really? Why? and how? That's certainly not self-evident.
Aside from embedded links, which can point into the file system and are
usually relative anyway, there's very little web-specific about HTML.
It's just one format that can be served over HTTP or read from a disk,
just like PDF or text/plain or OpenDocument.
HTML has some nice characteristics like resolution independence, direct
editability as text, and automatic reflow; but these are in no way
limited to network transfers. For many use cases, especially
cross-platform ones, HTML is the formatted text format of choice.
A properly designed HTML spec should not require, prohibit, or
preference a document being read from the network or from a local file
system or via any other protocol. HTML 1 through 4 and XHTML 1 and 2 had
this important characteristic. I hope HTML 5 does as well.
--
Elliotte Rusty Harold [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Refactoring HTML Just Published!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0321503635/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA
