Re: Lynx Viewer

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On 4 Aug 1998 18:02:03 GMT, a2mg@aol.com (A2MG) wrote:

>Information is good, but Lynx users are missing so much! This was the subject
>of our recent TEXAS II newsletter. We are urging any one who can possibly
>afford it to get a PC or Mac which allows full enjoyment of the web, including
>music and art. Apple II information is a very, very tiny part of it. Imagine
>walking into a garden where everything is gray. Not shades of gray, but the
>same dull gray.  The web is spectacular.  (And so is my Web site! - as long as
>you look at it from a PC or Mac.) I still use my IIGS and AppleWorks 90% of the
>time for writing, programming, and managing the business, but NOT for viewing
>the web.

I think that you are doing your readers an injustice by urging them to
spend a lot of money on something that they will most likely be
disappointed in.  You may think the web is "spectacular" but that is
your opinion and it will not be shared by everyone.

In my personal opinion, the web is extremely over hyped.  I'm not
saying it is a bad thing but it certainly isn't the multimedia
experience that many people (mostly the media) are saying it is.  Sure
you can get real time low quality sound and even lower quality video
(unless you are running an expensive machine with an expensive
internet connection like cable modem or T1) but that isn't what most
of the web consists of.

The web consists of "pages", like in a book.  Which would you prefer
to read, a book that has lots of full-colour photos and little
information or a book that gives you lots of information without lots
of pictures getting in the way?  I'd rather read a book or web page
that tells me how to sail a sailboat rather than look at a bunch of
pictures of sailboats.

Textual content on the web is vital for a page to be successful while
the rest is support for that text.  There is a balance that must be
made between them just like any page layout project must ensure a good
"look" for a page.  It takes a lot of work to make a page, be it a web
page or a book page, look the best it can and be appealing to as wide
an audience as possible.

With all the web pages I have worked on and to all the people I have
helped to learn how to create web pages, I could not stress enough the
importance of not getting too fancy or too browser specific.  Doing so
will severely limit your audience and if you aren't trying to reach a
lot of people, why bother creating a World Wide Web page in the first
place?

This message has gotten quite a bit longer than I had intended so I'll
finish by stating that although I do use Spectrum Internet Suite for
some of my web browsing, I do also use Internet Explorer v3.01 under
Windows 95.  However, 90% of the time when I use Internet Explorer, I
have pictures, sounds and videos turned off so that my web browsing
takes a more reasonable amount of time and I can actually find
information that is of interest to me.

To me, the internet is much more useful for e-mail, newsgroups, ftp
and telnet.

=== To ensure I see a reply please also e-mail me but remember to:
    CUT the obvious from my e-mail address to e-mail me
    Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University on Delphi