News Article

TidBITS#274/24-Apr-95

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comp.sys.mac.digest

TidBITS#274/24-Apr-95
=====================
This week's issue begins with news about Apple's strong second
   quarter, future Macs at Disney's EPCOT Center, new Microsoft-
   related anti-trust news, and more. We continue with an report
   from the Third International World-Wide Web Conference,
   thoughts about the appropriate use of computers in the form
   of a book review of Cliff Stoll's "Silicon Snake Oil," and a
   look at how to access the Internet via CompuServe's PPP
   services.

. . .

Third International World-Wide Web Conference
---------------------------------------------
  by Gordon Howell <gordon@scotnet.co.uk>
  With over 1,400 people at the third World-Wide Web conference held
  in Darmstadt, Germany April 10-14, 1995, delegates and organisers
  alike were left in no doubt as to the popularity and impact the
  Web has made in the year since the first conference.
**Proceedings and Hot Topics** -- The event had a real "buzz"
  about it. As usual, the most interesting part was in the personal
  contacts made, the corridor discussions and the more informal
  aspects of the program.
  Keynotes from Silicon Graphics and Alan Kay of Apple were
  especially thrilling. Alan Kay delivered a humorous and thought-
  provoking view of the development of media in general, and how the
  Web fits into context. He issued a warning that the technology
  base of HTML needs to improve dramatically - specifically through
  the adoption of a more sophisticated object-based architecture. He
  expressed fear that the WWW world is in danger of foisting an
  obsolete technology on the world just as IBM set back personal
  computers and operating systems ten years with the adoption of
  MS-DOS. His comments seem to be taken seriously, which in my
  opinion is a good sign.
  The event was well-organised, although plagued with technical
  problems owing to limited bandwidth (we think the entire German
  Internet ground to a halt last week!). Apple re-announced its
  Apple Internet Servers; claiming to be the first non-Unix platform
  to offer all features normally found on Unix-based HTTP servers.
  The Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics had a nifty WYSIWYG
  HTML editor for the Mac called Webtor, and SoftQuad's HoTMetaL PRO
  [a much-touted HTML editor that has gotten mediocre early comments
  from Mac users -Adam] was available, with the Mac version just
  released.
http://www.crcg.edu/
http://www.sq.com/
  Conference proceedings (and information about other Web
  conferences) are available online.
http://www.igd.fhg.de/www95.html
http://www.elsevier.nl/www3/welcome.html
  Several issues were hot topics for the conference, including Web
  security, standards and future standards (and violations thereof),
  HTML authoring and tools, marketing and commercialisation,
  localisation and foreign language materials, and semantic objects
  and general "objectising" of the Web. A couple specific
  technologies got a lot of attention, especially VRML, Silicon
  Graphics' WebForce and Open Inventor, Sun Microsystems' Hot Java,
  and Microsoft Network.
http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Inventor/index.html
http://www.sgi.com/Products/WebFORCE/nav-index.html
http://java.sun.com/
**VRML is Real** -- A big revelation for me was that VRML -
  Virtual Reality Modeling Language - is available and working
  today. VRML is essentially HTML expanded to three-dimensional
  space. The developer's objective is "to eliminate the user
  interface" by creating a virtual world that users are comfortable
  with navigating. You want to buy some jeans? Enter the mall, walk
  down the corridor and enter the Levi's factory outlet shop.
http://vrml.wired.com/
  As the speaker, Mark Pesce, jokingly alluded, "it's a bit like
  Doom meets home shopping." You can do nifty things like render a
  3-D scene, rotate it,  and find hot spots within (links to HTML
  are displayed in a neighboring Web browser) Best of all, you can
  do it all with a simple 486 and no additional hardware, and good
  content already exists to try it out. VRML 1.0 is to be finalised
  02-May-95, with a version 1.1 in the near future. Developers hope
  to get a draft specification for the WWW4 conference in Boston
  this December.
  SGI's Open Inventor was used as the standard for the ASCII file
  format; however VRML does not require a Silicon Graphics machine
  or software for use or authoring. A Macintosh browser will
  allegedly be available "this summer."
  Why is this cool? I will put my usual commercial slant on the
  picture: for businesses (like mine) which pull together virtual
  communities typified by members who may not even own a computer,
  anything that simplifies the interaction with the utterly foreign
  concept of "information space" is of tremendous practical benefit.
  I am able to create a metaphor for our user community which - if
  properly done - should be easier to navigate than an online menu.
  Ease of use and growth are directly correlated - Mark Pesce
  presented compelling statistics supporting this - thus a "VR-
  enabled" virtual community could have a profound market advantage
  over one using conventional Internet tools. This is a case of gee
  whiz technology which could fit real business needs like a glove.
  A data glove, that is.
  [Just to play devil's advocate, there are many who have doubts
  about VRML enhancing ease of use. Some argue that the skills to
  navigate an onscreen 3-D environment are no more intuitive for
  non-computer users than a keyboard is for someone who can write
  but who has never typed. -Geoff]
    SoftQuad -- 416/239-4801 -- 416/239-7105 (fax) -- <mail@sq.com>
    Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics
      401/453-6363 -- 401/453-0444 (fax) -- <crcg@crcg.edu>

. . .