non-standard HTML? [Re: netscape to become freely redistributable]

[Douglas Bates]

Martin Maechler <maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch> writes:

> >>>>> "DougB" == Douglas Bates <bates@stat.wisc.edu> writes:

>     DougB> In retrospect the decision to standardize on netscape and to use
>     DougB> their extensions to the HTML standards in the R documentation
>     DougB> looks like a good one.

> That's the paragraph which made me respond:

> ---> Which Non-HTML 3.2  Netscape-HTML extensions are we still using?
> 
> I've once looked a little bit at it and thought I didn't see any,
> at that time.
> 
> I very much agree with Ross (and Tony Rossini and ...) that we would not
> want to use non-standard HTML.

OK, I phrased that wrong.  I have found that I can't use lynx or
chimera or arena or w3 to view the initial page at
$RHOME/html/index.html because it uses tables.  I guess that is more
of a problem with the browsers than with the html files.

It appears that recent versions of lynx still cannot work with tables.
w3 as distributed with xemacs-20 will do tables but it is awkward
because of the fixed width fonts.  Chimera 2.0 seems to work on those
pages now as does chimera 1.7.  Arena displayed the pages but got a
little confused with the spacing of the tables.  Gzilla croaked on
startup so I don't know what it would do with them.

Overall if you need a freely available browser for the next few months 
it looks like chimera is the best bet.  From the ANNOUNCE file

 It is available for anonymous ftp at ftp.cs.unlv.edu in the
 directory /pub/chimera.  Check out the URL

 http://www.unlv.edu/chimera/

 for a partial list of mirrors and other information.

Chimera 2.0 is still in alpha test and appears to need a bit of work.
-- 
Douglas Bates                            bates@stat.wisc.edu
Statistics Department                    608/262-2598
University of Wisconsin - Madison        http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~bates/
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