Alternatives to the W3C

[Steven Livingstone, ITS, SENM]

	>Is that really what they want? Somehow I doubt it. 
	They have told us !

	>Somehow I doubt it. I have this funny 
	>feeling that what they want to do is browse a database, or have 
	>customers place orders, or play games, or something else that's an 
	>end in itself.
	Yep, but they want a client/server environment and not constant
clicking - I wish they would play games, at least it'd take my headache
away. It's a kind of heldesk environment, so they need instant access to
loads of different types of data, but to be able to view related data at the
same time - hence an incremently marked up (kind of dynamic client cache)
XML doc on the client.

	>If this is an Intranet, you might be able to pull off what you 
	>suggest. If it's the public Web, then it's hopeless. Tell your
client 
	>that they will piss off and lose customers if they do this UNLESS 
	>they provide a seamless alternative to the underlying
functionality.

Fortunately is is an Extranet environment, so we good control over our
browsers.
We are planning to develop a cut down version for non-xml browsers.

Cheers,
Steven

Steven Livingstone
Glasgow, Scotland.
07771 957 280 or +447771957280

Pro XML
http://www.wrox.com/Consumer/Store/Details.asp?ISBN=1861003110
Professional Site Server 3, Wrox Press
http://www.wrox.com/Consumer/Store/Details.asp?ISBN=1861002696
Professional Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition, Wrox Press
http://www.wrox.com/Consumer/Store/Details.asp?ISBN=1861002505


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Elliotte Rusty Harold [SMTP:elharo at metalab.unc.edu]
> Sent:	20 January 2000 18:54
> To:	Steven Livingstone, ITS, SENM; 'XML Dev'
> Cc:	Ann Navarro
> Subject:	RE: Alternatives to the W3C
> 
> At 4:05 PM +0000 1/20/00, Steven Livingstone, ITS, SENM wrote:
> >
> >
> >I develop weblications. I don't develop for the latest innovations just
> >because I want to be on the cutting edge. It is practical.
> >
> >I am just out of a 2 hour meeting where we tried to follow in our
> previous
> >project *exactly* what you have been suggesting. They want these menu's
> to
> >ease navigation, they want different page looks depending on who they
> are,
> >they want help when they press F1 etc etc etc... This is more than 2000
> >people saying this.
> >
> >In our case, the front-end clearly *is* critical - what they want
> >(window-like in MS windows or X-Windows interfaces like they had in
> >client-server) can only be done using the latest technologies.
> >
> 
> Is that really what they want? Somehow I doubt it. I have this funny 
> feeling that what they want to do is browse a database, or have 
> customers place orders, or play games, or something else that's an 
> end in itself. I find it hard to believe that the front-end is really 
> the mission critical part of an app. It sounds like the client has 
> strong ideas of what front end they want, but I doubt that's the app.
> 
> If this is an Intranet, you might be able to pull off what you 
> suggest. If it's the public Web, then it's hopeless. Tell your client 
> that they will piss off and lose customers if they do this UNLESS 
> they provide a seamless alternative to the underlying functionality.
> 
> FileMaker Pro does a pretty good job of something like this. If you 
> connect to a FileMaker database using IE5, you'll get a very fancy 
> site that uses DHTML heavily to reproduce the exact look and feel of 
> the underlying database. If you connect with Netscape, you'll get a 
> less snazzy but still completely functional table and form based 
> page. There's no extra work for the user or the publisher here. Of 
> course I suspect the people who programmed FileMaker had to work very 
> hard to make it this easy.
> 
> 
> +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
> | Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo at metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
> +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
> |                  The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999)                   |
> |              http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/books/bible/               |
> |   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764532367/cafeaulaitA/   |
> +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
> |  Read Cafe au Lait for Java News:  http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/ |
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