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The Visual Component

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Visual venue last modified Sunday, 02-Jun-2002 20:58:13 PDT .
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Your Web browser: A program your computer uses to display pages of text and graphics from a Web site. (You are using a browser right now to view this page.) Some popular Web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), Netscape Navigator/Communicator (aka "Mozilla"), and NCSA Mosaic. Online services, such as AOL and Prodigy, may have their own browsers. Many other browsers are available, and the number is increasing rapidly.

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What Is HyperText Markup Language (HTML): The language your browser understands. When you enter the address of a Web page in your browser window, your computer sends a request to the host computer, which then sends a file, written in HTML, back to you along with copies of any associated graphics. Your browser stores them in a cache folder, then reads the HTML file and displays the page.

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What HTML looks like: HTML is a combination of text, cryptic formatting commands, and commands that display graphics or provide links to other files. Most browsers will let you look at the HTML version of any page you are displaying by using menu commands (View/Source, View/Document Source, File/Document Source, or something similar). Why not try it now?

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Different versions of HTML: Efforts have been made to standardize HTML, but the standard is evolving rapidly. Our own first exposure was to the HTML 2 Standard. This was followed by a proposed HTML 3 Standard that was quickly relaced by the longer-lived HTML 3.2 Standard. In December 1997, the HTML 4.0 Standard was released. Extensible Markup Language (XML) was introduced in February 1998, and has been used to define specialized markup languages for mathematical notation and for multimedia applications. In February 2000, XML and HTML were combined to form a new entity termed the Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML1.0. Development of these evolving Web publishing standards is coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an industry group that includes Microsoft, Netscape, AOL, CompuServe, AT&T, and many others. The frequent turnover in standards is a reflection of the rapid advances in Web technology. Browser writers are always trying to find ways to get their code to do wonderful things their competitors haven't thought of yet. This does lead to some incompatibilities and, until some "standard" becomes nearly universal, Web surfers will have to live with the differences created by the various flavors of HTML and its relatives.

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How your browser responds to different versions of HTML: When the underlying code for your browser was written, probably in C or C++, the programmer chose to have it recognize certain HTML statements that were then in common use. If your browser is a recent version, it probably understands all of HTML 4.0 and, possibly, some HTML extensions that go beyond this. If you have an older version of a browser, it may understand only part of this broader language. If your browser encounters an HTML phrase that it does not recognize, it will most likely just ignore the phrase. (Do not expect it to write you an error message.) If the questionable phrase is part of a longer HTML statement, the browser probably will try to interpret the remainder of the statement, with somewhat unpredictable results. If your browser displays some graphics as black boxes, displays text on top of graphics when that is obviously not intended, will not display graphics and text side-by-side, or will not display frames correctly, then it is probably having difficulty interpreting some HTML statements.

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Why you should upgrade your old browser: A newer browser is more likely to be able to interpret a wider range of HTML statements that use recent HTML extensions. Thus, it will be able to display successfully a greater number of Web pages than will an older browser. In particular, it may support features such as frames, Java applets, ActiveX controls, style sheets, and dynamic HTML.

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How to obtain a free browser: Some Web browsers can be downloaded at no cost to you, sometimes just for an evaluation period, sometimes forever. Three of the many possibilities are listed below (no endorsement implied). Often both a current version and a preliminary "beta release" of an upcoming version are available. The beta release may also be referred to as a "pre-release" (PR), a "platform preview" (PP), or something similar. Generally, major bugs have been eliminated from the current version. The beta release provides the adventurous user an opportunity to try out, and comment on, the upcoming version but, because it is preliminary, it may lack some of the features planned for the final version and may have a few bugs, including some that could crash your system. Frequently, several beta releases are issued before a final version becomes available.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE): Originally written for Win 95 and Win NT. Now versions are also available for most other platforms. Version 6.0 was released in the Summer of 2001, and may be downloaded free from Microsoft.

Netscape Navigator ("Mozilla"): Version 7.0 was released in May 2002, and is currently available for most platforms. (Navigator is also available as part of a larger "Netscape Communicator" suite) These may be downloaded from Netscape. There is no indication of when a new beta release may be expected. Netscape betas, when available, generally stop working on a specified date several weeks off but, by then, the next beta release may be available for download. Netscape Navigator may not recognize all the recent HTML extensions in the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

NCSA Mosaic: The original Mosaic was the very first Web browser to offer a graphical user interface. Version 3.0 was released in January 1997 and may be downloaded free from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Versions exist for a number of different platforms, including Mac, Windows, Win95 and NT, and Unix/X-Windows. NCSA does not plan any additional development work on Mosaic, so the current versions are likely to be the last. Mosaic may not recognize all the recent HTML extensions in the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.

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How to find out about new browsers: For an up-to-date summary of the latest information (and rumors) about new browsers, check Browserwatch. This site is updated frequently, often daily. It also provides links to Web sites that describe, and may offer downloads, of various browsers.

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Your computer's graphics display system: The image displayed on your monitor depends on your browser's ability to interpret the HTML file, on your graphics display card, and on the monitor itself. We recall older monitors that displayed only a single color, and older display cards that could generate only sixteen colors. Systems today generally feature color monitors and come with a display card that can generate at least 256 colors ("8-bit color"). Often they can generate many more (up to "32-bit color"). Your system setup program may allow you to choose between different color display options (e.g., from a minimum of 16 colors to some larger maximum number). If an HTML file calls for colors your display card can't generate, the card will substitute others. Ideally, these will be "close" to what the HTML file calls for, but the artistic sensitivities of substitution algorithms vary.

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Why our Web pages do not look the same on all computers: What you see depends on your browser's ability to interpret all the HTML commands in the source file, on the ability of your graphics display card to generate all the colors used on the page, and on how your monitor displays the colors. If your browser is unable to understand an HTML phrase that affects page layout, that will impact the way the page is displayed. Also, different browsers may display slightly different relative sizes of graphics and text, and some allow the user to adjust the size of the displayed text. Thus, a page layout that seems just right when viewed on our system may seem less ideal on yours. (Of course, if your browser does not display graphics at all, or if you have turned off the graphics display for increased speed, that will have a major impact on the page layout.) Also, if a page calls for colors your display card can't generate, you will see something other than what our page designer intended. Even when your display card can generate the colors, your monitor may display slightly different intensities and hues than another monitor does. Finally, if your monitor uses a different resolution than ours, that will affect the size of the displayed text, the number of characters per line, and the location of the line breaks. Because of all these variables, we cannot predict exactly how our pages will display on your system. We currently view our own Web pages on a 17-inch monitor using a 32-bit color display with 800 x 600 VGA resolution. We use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Version 5.01. Please feel free to e-mail us comments on how our Web pages display on your system.

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