Re: [MACCAWS] browsers? No, user agents.

> * It takes some time and serious effort to learn how to implement standards
> (and "standard's hacks")

I think you mean "standards hacks".  See [http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
(40K)] for a perhaps overly-sarcastic but accurate commentary (may not be
suitable for small children or corporate environments).

> The user agent is kind of thinking a little granularly isn't it?
[w3 definition snipped]
> it's by definition a referral to the general class of devices or device used
> to access anything in a distibuted system.  
> my absolute favorite "client" (implying a transactional system, where the 
> client is served, such as httpd transactions

not sure how 'user agent' is much more general or confusing than 'client'.  And
I think the whole point here is to think granularly -- we're not just talking
about Netscape, Explorer, iCab, or any of the other 200 or so browsers on the
planet (see http://browsers.evolt.org/ for many, but probably not all, of
them).  As far as I can tell (I don't have time to follow much of this very
closely), we're not just talking about desktop browsers, or PDAs, or toasters,
or anything else that may or may not need a separate set of files to transmit. 
We could be talking about the program that might be embedded on the chip in the
side of your microwave in ten years, or we might be talking about the program
that a blind (or nearly-blind, which is a bit more likely) user might use to
convert your page to Braille for her to read.  WE DON'T KNOW.

The *whole point* here is to think granularly.

jonathon isaac swiderski
ann arbor, michigan, usa

=====
-- 
Jonathon Isaac Swiderski       [email protected]
cs.oberlin.edu/~jswiders \\ members.evolt.org/jswiders

The above email is carefully calculated to deprave the
cultivated reader.

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