RE: Java, HTML, Javascript and the browser wars

I agree that this is pretty ridiculous, however, I'm not sure that JSP will
suffer for it.  The Netscape/IE war (jihad) reminds me of the VHS v. betamax
format for video tape.  Both good standards (albeit Betamax is a better
format) but in the end, producers went for VHS and left the purists mourning
for Beta.   Of course, DVD has shifted the paradigm to the point where
neither VHS nor Beta is an acceptable medium.  (remember the Rush song The
Trees?)

The point?  In the end, the browser with the most marketing (and most market
share) will win out.  Sure, the Motorola chip is better than the Intel chip
but Pentiums sell better.  I'm teaching an HTML class at a community college
in my area, and the would-be developers like IE better than Netscape 20-3.
They usually comment that the dislike Microsoft's hold on the technology but
IE supports more W3C features (like CSS) than Netscape.  

In the end, the real point of a web page is to deliver content.  I believe
"Content is King"; if you build it (regardless of the "cool" factor) they
will come.  All Flash and no substance means: customers won't be back.
Having said that, using techniques as you suggest certainly differentiates
your site from the vast majority. (or makes you a "daily sucker" on
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com) *grins*

I try to develop to the lowest common denominator and that means using
techniques like <font> tags instead of CSS.  Not the best solution but
sometimes "good enough is good enough."  Hopefully, Netscape 6 will resolve
some of the short falls of Navigator....

Is Navigator open source?  I seem to recall that Netscape was bought by AOL,
but I didn't realize it went open.....

dan
Honeywell International

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@plutabrothers.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2001 11:55 AM
To: JAVA400-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Java, HTML, Javascript and the browser wars

How pathetic.  A perfect example of how the people that provide the "tools"
care far more about market share than about the users.  And this doesn't
reflect particularly well on the Open Source community, either, since
Mozilla is an Open Source project.


+---
| This is the JAVA/400 Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to JAVA400-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to JAVA400-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to JAVA400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner: joe@zappie.net
+---