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What is the future of existing WWW and HTML?

A small piece of my history

I made a HTML-based page model, which could work perfectly in 400x300 pixel as well as 1024x768 pixel devices because of advanced, scalable frame system, which I developed. Here is an image of an imagined 400x300 pixel device (my main page is today a little bit different as you see in the picture below this paragraph, but however it gives a good comprehension of it):

Navigation frames can be collapsed/expanded and following images show, what it means (remark: I have exchanged the appearance of my pages, but the system itself is fully functional).

http://netti.nic.fi/~tapio1/Light_Table/narrow.gif - in this picture navigation frames are collapsed.

http://netti.nic.fi/~tapio1/Light_Table/wide.gif - now navigation frames are expanded.

When the left navigation frame is collapsed, the user can shrink the width of the screen into 400 pixel and there would not be a horizontal scroll bar! There is no need to zoom the page (browsers of Opera Software and Sun microsystems support zooming). Zooming pages smaller make them always worse to read and the appearance might decrease drastically. It is better if there in no need to zoom. When navigation frames are expanded the whole 1024 (or even wider) width is in full use.

But this model might not have any use in future devices. Nokia Mobile Phones wants with co-operation with two other leader Mobile Phone manufacture, L M Ericsson and Motorola would like to make the whole system to base on WML. And all the code will be packed into binary format in order to get faster performance.

Look at WAP/WML: www.wapforum.com and www.forum.nokia.com

What happens to the computer and basic HTML based existing WWW?

Binary code is fast and mobile devices needs fast code and it is sensible to use as much as possible fast code, but does it mean the destruction of the original idea of WWW? Look at the question closer:

• Is binary code a threat? Answer: if the same document can be read normally and packed, it is not any problem. But if the code, which is used in the mobile devices is always in binary format, then two mobile devices works like two FTP-applications (FTP-applications transfer code in binary format). If this code should be used in normal Internet connections, the code should convert into ordinary format.
• Does WML always professional skill? Answer: "Yes - it needs!" I read about it and I found following:

  The WML language is very complex because of the 9 independent languages which are used intermixed. Because of this WML is not easy to understand and use for the average web designer.

  This is however only partially the truth. I have read WML and WMLScript and made even menus to them (TM WML menu and TM WMLScript menu). Basic WML is at least as easy as HTML, but dynamic documents with CGI encoding needs skill.
• Does it totally replace HTML? Answer: "No"

  So, WML really is a meta language which just uses maximum software leverage to achieve its goal: powerful HTML generation... WML is HTML-dependent"

• Browser designers can create WML and HTML capable browsers, if they just want to do so.
• But is there is really the danger to go toward Babel like Jukka Korpela writes? Not necessarily:
  • CSS doesn't lead to Babel! If they are designed correctly, they are not harmful. In fact - many CSS definitions are in fact easy and by using CSS everyone can make much easier nice pages as without CSS! CSS is nothing else than a way to define the presentation of documents, but the code itself can be HTML 2.0 or HTML 3.2 compliant, platform independent.
  • If XML-documents are transformed into XHTML files with XSLT, with CGI encoding or on WAP Servers, they can be read with any browser - it depends how XML-documents are delivered!
  • An e-mail friend wrote to me in Finnish and here is somekind of translation of this his letter. If this is the truth, WAP doesn't cause any fragmentation into the net:

    It is probable, that most page designers don't make ever WML-documents - they remain primary as the work of web servers. Normal users can continue to make HTML/XHTML pages as today, because WAP-server make the translation into WML independent of the user of mobile phones and web page designers

• If Mobile devices replace computers as the main devices, the advertising in traditional net decreases. This is in my mind problematic question. If there is very few adverting in traditional WWW, how other purposes of WWW can be fulfilled? WAP devices don't fit into educational purposes and to presentation of art. There is always the need of ordinary web pages.
• What is the security? If there are more programming languages, there are more possibilities to create viruses.

Is it reality that mobile devices can replace computers?

Yes, it is a very realistic idea! People have much more mobile phones than computers and people use many times more mobile phones than Internet. If Nokia Mobile Phones succeed, it replaces nowadays phones with next generation models, which are in fact small mobile computers. The need of ordinary computers can decrease drastically. Then big mobile phone companies can control the main digital information stream in the whole world!

I don't want to see newer two kind of net. The traditional Internet and a special Mobile Net, because the basic idea of HTML is to be platform independent.

But in order to get well working WAP, it means also that prices in mobile network should come much cheaper - you can get surf in the net with computer 8 p/minute and with mobile phones 60-170p/minutes - it is 8-16 times more expensive!

I would like to see, that Internet could have always also other purpose as fully commercial. There remain always some non-commercial functions: Education, art, large stories, religion etc. But if the commercial function is minimized, also other functions can be quite minimal - who will support them? In my mind WAP pages could lead to pages, which need bigger screens, to learn more about certain matters.

Threats

There is also inside threats - vandals. If Microsoft 2000 -systems is common it is inside threat to the WWW, because MS Office 2000, Windows 2000 and MS Internet Explorer are tightly integrated to each others. Using ISDN the use often doesn't know if he is in the net or not. Someone can interrupt secret like theft to computers and steal or destroy information like using another computer as "remote controller". Vandals are a threat both to the traditional Internet and Mobile net, because the new system bases on Windows NT technology in servers (I read about this from a Microsoft Magazine). In my mind it would be much more reasonable to build the basis on Linux as Windows NT!

What we should do if we want to keep on the original idea of WWW?

1. We should be depending only on Microsoft. For big Internet servers in Finland like Sonera and Kolumbus is not any matter, if there is not existing WWW after few years. But smaller Internet servers are more depending on the existing web.
2. Using alternative browsers.
   • Very fast and handy browser: Fully independent Opera 3.60, which support better CSS1 and is faster than MS Internet Explorer 5.0 and have nice features: Tile, cascade and zoom - you can also customize with your own CSS-files the appearance of fonts. You don't need newer to look at too small text for your eyes! Now free, if you accept advertising! Go to Opera!
     Look at a picture, how nice it tile windows
   • Browser to small devises: Zooming is also in the browser of Sun microsystems, which is developed to small devices and eg. Motorola, TCI and Sony have licensed it - read more. This might be the main browser, which the new system uses. But it is now only HTML 3.2 level. Opera 3.60 is HTML 3.2 with CSS1 and parts of CSS2; Opera 4.0 will probably support HTML 4.0, CSS2, XML and DHTML.
   • A browser, which has the best outlook? NeoPlanet - the appearance of this browser is like a smart web page! Look at an image
     Supports both IE 5.0 and Mozilla 5.0 (Gecko) rendering engines - you could get to any page with this, but Mozilla 5.0 don't work yet properly and I don't recommend to browse with it (in W3C CSS1 test pages Mozilla made less errors than Opera 3.60 and IE 5.0 - in fact it was almost flawless). This browser is free and you can get this from pages of Mozilla (www.mozilla.org) or direct from NeoPlanet
3. Making faster working WWW-pages. My pages should work fast, because of optimized graphics and advanced frame system (a big quantity of pages can be fast to find from frames).
4. Developing efficient, flexible and user-friendly navigation systems. I have tried to develop them and I have suggestion to better systems.
5. Using multiple windows - this is also the main intention of Opera Software - we both support scale ability and multiple windows . We think that all single window systems are old-fashioned. There is not possible to use well working multiple window systems in mobile devices - they are too small for this! That's way computer-based systems can be more powerful. But there is needed much exchanges in attitudes - WWW should not be understand two dimensional but three dimensional!
6. Using CSS with media rules, when the same page can be read differently in small handheld devices, in large 21' screens and printing on the paper. Then also the user of handheld mobile phones could print with color printer fine pages! Nice!
7. Professional page designers should support amateurs and gives their possibility to use their talents - this possibility is only in computer based WWW - Mobile Phone Based WWW will be almost full commercial and there is not so much space for ordinary people. If professional designer says: "We do everything", it for customers the same as to use Mobile network system - there is neither need of their own talents. There must be space for personal drawings (even if they are not professional art) etc.
8. Collecting test groups to develop WML also in the use of traditional WWW so that there can be both existing HTML based and WML based WWW. We should not wait, that the mobile network pas it!The mobile network can be side by side with the traditional Internet, but not replace it!