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Index to What I Don't Like!

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Perhaps the biggest problem with Windows 95's success in the marketplace is the dearth of applications for OS/2. It's very tough finding support for oddball and even commonplace hardware: vendors are writing their programs for Windows 95. Want a scanner? Try finding the OS/2 version of the software! Want to buy an HP colour printer? Hey, they're now making a Windows-only version of their DeskJet series! And how on earth did Microsoft convince keyboard manufacturers to include Windows specific keys on keyboards? Perhaps Corel can get Corel-specific keys on to the keybards, too. And ID Software might like to have Quake-specific keys!

Microsoft has built up its dominance in the operating system market through a series of sneaky and underhanded tricks. The trade press seems all too willing to ignore that fact as well as the fact there are other, better, operating systems out there.

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Guided Tour

What would happen if I actually did what I described in the above paragraph? I would be denounced in every newspaper, radio, and TV article covering the block party. Associations and individuals representing the coloured, aboriginal, Jewish, and Christian communities would stand in line to tell me where I could take my discriminatory policies.

Yet that same situation exists today on the World Wide Web.

Netscape Communications, with its flagship product Navigator, has done the World Wide Web both a great service and a great disservice. It has done a service by making the Web accessible to thousands of people in North America and elsewhere. But it has done an even greater disservice by introducing proprietary extensions to the language of the Web, HTML.

No doubt, the <FRAMES> tag is a neat idea. With a well placed frame, a site developer can keep a static index on one edge of the page and allow the user to navigate the site in the primary frame. But what about people who do not use Navigator or Explorer? On far too many sites on the Web, they get told they are not welcome here because they are using a frames-challenged browser, and are generally presented with a link to get Navigator or Explorer. That's like the Jew who gets turned away at the gate because he's not a Christian.

In addition, lots of sites set up their links only as graphics, failing to supply ALT="text" parameters in the <IMG SRC= tags, or text-based navigation bars on their pages. Lately, many sites have been moving to image maps where they combine several icons into a single graphic and map the links in the HTML code. (This problem is not directly Netscape's fault: it's largely the fault of people using Web authoring tools without having first gained a basic understanding of HTML.)

I often navigate the Web using only Lynx, a text-mode only browser, or turn off the loading of graphics in OS/2 Web Explorer because they take so long to load! Then I feel like the coloured or aboriginal person at the hypothetical block party described above: I can get in, but I can't do anything. I am presented with a page that contains a tiny smattering of text among large blank areas that give me no indication of where they lead.

To All People Writing Web Pages: The name of the Web language is HTML: the T stands for TEXT. It's not CGDL - Cool Graphics Display Language. Put in all the graphics you want, but, please, remember there are people out there who use text-only browsers. There are also visually impaired people who can't see the graphics at all. Remember them also when you design your web site.

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Brian Lowe / Winnipeg PC User Group / blowe@wpcusrgrp.org
Last updated on October 27, 1996. Accesses since September 30, 1998: