Keywords
Citation
Ellis, B. (2000), "That would not make a bad programme", Circuit World, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2000.21726caa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited
That would not make a bad programme
That would not make a bad programme[1]
Keyword: Internet
For the first part of this commentary, I shall talk a little about software for Internet applications. Let's start with browsers. The most popular one today is without doubt the Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) in its various flavours, followed by the diverse Netscape (NS) contributions. My personal view is that the popularity of MSIE is not because of its technical merit but because it is foisted upon us with operating systems and on nearly every other application CD-ROM that Microsoft issues. The legality of this is still under consideration by the US Department of Justice. However, having used both, I consider that the NS Navigator is, by far, the superior product.
However, the browser war is tied in closely with that of e-mail clients. The Microsoft one is Outlook Express which is, in my opinion, the worst of the major contributors to the market. I was recently constrained to use it for a week, when I was visiting someone who had only that on his computer and I was frustrated by its limitations, while working with my e-mail. Believe it or not, I actually lost all trace of some e-mails while I was creating a separate in-box for my own use! This is unforgivable. Then I could not see to whom an e-mail with multiple addresses was sent. This is why some of the popular e-mail clients are neither from Microsoft nor even from NS. One that springs to mind is Eudora. I admit I have never tried it, so I cannot comment from personal experience, but I've been told it is good. I use the Netscape Messenger and this satisfies me amply. Its user-interface is perhaps slightly less jazzy than that of Outlook Express, but it's very much more practical to use.
Now, both the Netscape browser and e-mail client may be, unlike the Microsoft equivalents, integrated into a single software, called Communicator. In addition to these fundamental functions, Communicator also has an integral WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web page HTML (hypertext markup language, the language of Internet Webs) generator, called Composer, but more of this later. It also has, integrated into Messenger, a newsgroup client. In other words, it is a powerful suite of Internet tools and is available, free of charge, for downloading from http://www.netscape.com or it can frequently be found on magazine cover discs. I have just updated from Communicator version 4.5 to version 4.7 and am very satisfied with its performance and capabilities.
However, there is a newcomer to the scene, a rather strange one, in fact. This is a single program, started from a single icon, which is browser, e-mail client, personal organiser, calendar/diary, address book, word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, bitmap graphics generator/editor, HTML generator and so on. Yes, in a single integrated software! This is something incredible. It will do just about everything for which I use the Corel Office Suite (or the Microsoft one), the Netscape Communicator and Corel Photo-Paint or their equivalents, with direct drag-and-drop between the components. In fact, to learn more about it, I am using it to write this article, as I browse at the same time. It has another advantage: I have yet to have a Windows crash while using it, touch wood! The cost of this marvel? Not a cent! To be quite honest, like Netscape, it costs a local phone call or whatever to download it or you may find it on a cover disc on a computer magazine. It is available for Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT4/2000, Solaris, Sparc, Unix, Linux and OS/2 platforms (not yet MAC, for some reason). Now the popular adage says that you get what you pay for, so, as you pay nothing for this, then it must be worthless. This is far from true, in this case. My first impression is that it will give, as a word processor and a spreadsheet, both the Microsoft and Corel suites a very good run for their money. By the way, you can import files from both these applications into it so that your existing data is still usable. Overall, the learning curve is quite fast, if you are used to other software, although you may not find the icon you are looking for where you expect it, but you can lay out the toolbars as you wish. OK, is there a catch? Not that I can find. The technical support is offered by no less than Sun Microsystems Inc. And I cannot see a company of this prestige offering this lightly, as a "freebie". I see it more as a campaign by Sun to out-Microsoft Microsoft, knowing there is no love lost between the companies. The product is called StarOffice, currently at version 5.1. Historically, it has been developed by a German company over the last few years, using the Java language, which explains its stability, its cross-platform transportability and Sun's basic interest in it, because it is an excellent and major demonstration of the language's possibilities. I think that this cannot be ignored as an Internet interface, just because it is also a powerful tool for other functions (see Figure 1). If any reader is using it as a browser or as an e-mail client, I would be very interested to hear of his experiences. In Windows, at least, I have found that it tends to take over the Desktop rather aggressively, including the taskbar, substituting its own. This may hide some features which are normally available.
Figure 1Full
screen view of StarOffice being used for editing this article and simultaneously
viewing the Flexible Circuitry and Electronic Packaging Technology Magazine Home
Page, all in the one program
Let's now have a look at HTML generators. There are several different types. I shall ignore the pure ASCII-type editors, as they are not WYSIWYG and require a fairly profound knowledge of the HTML language to use effectively. Most Web-page designers now use one or other of the WYSIWYG ones, although it may be better to call them WYSIWYGN, because it is rare for the designed page to look exactly like what you see on the screen when creating it. The entry level is to use a straightforward word processor like Word or WordPerfect and to export the page as an HTML file. This is a hairy operation, because the word processors have hundreds of features and details that cannot be translated into the HTML language, which is why the end result may differ somewhat from the original. In the case of Word, it is not impossible for the HTML result to be "enhanced" in such a way that some features will display differently with MSIE than with other browsers. This is not a recommended method because the code becomes terribly heavy, as well, although it is often useful if you have an existing document that you wish to export to a Web site. There is, perhaps, half an exception: I tried creating an HTML page from a StarOffice word processing document. Although it was still heavier than it ought to be, it was lighter than that produced by other word processors but the generated HTML was "syntaxed" somewhat differently. Like the others, it often took liberties with fonts and other details.
The second class is best illustrated by the Netscape Composer, found in Communicator. In fact, there are hundreds of softwares belonging to this category, many of them freeware or shareware. As they are purpose-built for this job - and only this job - they usually produce reasonably good, compact HTML code. Most of them incorporate an HTML editor, to allow manipulations that the automatic generator cannot manage. It is relatively rare, for example, for this category of software to incorporate meta tag editing, although they are an essential part of Web page generation, but this can be done manually in the HTML editing mode (if one knows how!). On the whole, the better ones in this category make excellent tools for the occasional Web page generation or even small Web sites, but they would be quite laborious for major projects.
I'll describe the last class as the professional Web generator illustrated by Microsoft FrontPage, which is the market leader. This is entirely different from the previous type in that it performs best when creating a whole Web, rather than a pack of pages. It is too expensive, in two ways, for the casual designer. First, it costs more than most other systems and, second, it takes a long time to master all the intricacies of its power. In truth, the apprenticeship of the latest version, 2000, is somewhat easier than the previous 2, 3, 97 and 98 versions because the authors have integrated all the functions into a single program, but the learning curve is still long. What does this offer that the simpler systems don't? First, one can import or design a graphics theme for the whole Web without having to worry about importing it into each page. Second, one can have multi-level hierarchical navigation, which is generated automatically by manipulating the files in a flow diagram. Third, one can incorporate a number of features, such as search pages, hover buttons, forms, transitions, forums, hit counters and so on (the list counts in tens) with automatic scripting. Fourth, one can move a page around a Web, even into different directories or folders, and the hyperlinks to it follow automatically, as is also the case if you change a filename. Fifth, one can see what the likely download time of a page is at whatever modem speed one cares to select. Sixth, one can check with which browsers (type and version) a page is not likely to appear as one intends. Seventh ... one could go on for ever! I upgraded to FrontPage 2000 from the previous versions some months ago for my professional Web site development and I am really enthusiastic about it; very rare, indeed, for a Microsoft product!
While on the subject, please allow me to mention two off-topic items. I have recently evaluated the latest generation of four different speech recognition systems (I have been using speech recognition for about eight years). IBM ViaVoice Pro, Millennium Edition, comes out best, by a short head, over Dragon NaturallySpeaking 4, the rest of the field being also-rans. I was able to obtain a better recognition accuracy with ViaVoice, a faster response time and, more subjectively, I found it easier to use for corrections and navigation. Recommended!
The other off-topic item is that rodent which everyone uses, the mouse. My original favourite, up to about five years ago, was the Mouse Systems optical mouse, but the manufacturer never upgraded it with drivers for 32 bit Windows. It was ideal for CAD work, where precision is required. I was therefore constrained to use a ball-type mouse. I tried Microsoft, Logitech and a number of others but I really detested them because there was never a guarantee that the ball would turn and transmit its motion to the encoder wheel in a predictable manner. I finally settled on the best of a bad bunch, the Microsoft Intellimouse PS/2. I have recently upgraded to a new type, the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer USB. It is fantastic. It is an optical mouse, operating on an ingenious new principle and it works on almost any surface, be it black, white, smooth, rough, textured - anything except a polished mirror-like surface. I use it happily on a white melamine table top and I can place that cursor exactly where I want it, every time, no messing. Furthermore, it is much more ergonomic for right-handed guys, like me. If you want to see what I mean, place your right hand in a slightly cupped position over an ordinary Intellimouse and lower it slowly onto it: you will see that the wrist is twisted slightly anticlockwise, actually a very tiring position. Do the same with the new one and the wrist is not rotated at all. It has two extra thumb buttons which can be programmed to most functions. When working with the Vutrax Electronic CAD system, for example, I use the main thumb button so that, unpressed, rotating the wheel will scroll up and down; with the thumb button pressed, it scrolls left and right. Highly recommended, but not for left-handed persons (I have seen an advertisement for an ambidextrous version without the thumb buttons, but I think its shape is a compromise).
For the theme of this article, I shall be looking at some of the on-line magazines which abound on the Internet. Most of these are trimmed versions of printed magazines, with a few additional features. Their quality is very variable, many of them being just platforms for publicity.
Printed Circuit Design is a well-known paper magazine but, whereas they may know a lot about printed circuit design, it would seem apparent that they know little about Internet Web site design. Their Home Page takes an enormous length of time to download, partially because access to their server is very difficult, with time-outs, and partially because of the use of frames and inordinate graphics, mostly advertisements. The left-hand frame is devoted to a lengthy menu which makes navigation fairly easy. The top frame is a title and it does not serve any real purpose. These two frames alone consume over 20 kilobytes of downloading but the main frame adds on nearly another 100 kilobytes, which is far too much, especially for a site attached to a poor server service, as this is. Happily, the frame set does have good meta descriptions and keywords. This would be a good aid to ensure that the site is correctly posted by various search engines. Other than the advertisements which I have already mentioned, the main frame offers a "Today's News" with links to the news items, most of which are appropriate to the theme of the magazine. Most of the other pages have a similar layout to the Home Page, although the title frame has a different background. I was rather disappointed because there are no technical articles published on this Web site. I would have thought that an abstract would have been a minimum for each article, rather than just the title in the table of contents. The articles are reserved for the subscribers. To become one, it is sufficient to fill in a few details, most of which are relevant, and the magazine will be sent to you free of charge. The contents of the pages are almost exclusively based on US technology. Although they are not heavily subscribed, there are useful forums and discussion lists available on the site.
When I downloaded PC Fab, I didn't need a crystal-ball to realise that it belonged to the same stable as the last one. The layout is similar, except that the main frame is even bigger, the server access is just as difficult, and the features are very much the same. There are, however two major differences, a few of the articles are published in full - which is a distinct improvement - and there are no forums on the site. Otherwise, the same remarks apply.
SMT Magazine On-line also has a fairly large Home Page, making for longish download times, albeit somewhat smaller than the previous ones. However, it does have the merit that the server is readily accessible with a high-speed link into the Internet backbone. On an average, this magazine will download three or four times faster than either of the two previous ones. Personally, I don't particularly like the layout of the Home Page which tries to emulate a printed magazine rather than to take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by the Internet. Although less obtrusive, the Home Page has a number of advertisements for products and services. It has correct meta descriptions and keyword lists. Again, only the table of contents of the printed magazine will reveal what is available. It would seem that there is probably a considerable time lag between the publication of the printed version and the online version. In mid-March, the January issue is the latest available. In this, only one article is published in full. I repeat that the least that could be done under these circumstances is to publish a complete abstract of each paper. Of course, the reader may see the full articles by a free subscription. The questionnaire to fill for this is fairly long and repetitive but does not ask any indiscreet questions. One useful feature is called Step-by-Step SMT. This is a series of ten articles covering everything from design for manufacturing through to rework and repair, followed by a full glossary. This series is a valuable treatise of the basic needs of the "newbie" requiring to learn a very general coverage of the subject. Notwithstanding, it must be appreciated that this is not an "in-depth" treatment. Other than this, I found little to recommend this site as being superior to any other.
At first glance, I thought that I had, at last, found a very fast loading Home Page. Everything seemed to download rapidly until I saw that there was a very slow image developing in the bottom left-hand corner. On investigation, this was a large (85 kilobytes) abstract picture, which serves no useful purpose other than to make the page "pretty"! However, there were no advertisements and the page was relatively uncluttered, which is to its advantage. This site is sponsored by the Flexible Circuitry and Electronic Packaging Technology Magazine, a rather daunting title. The Home Page (Figure 1) is not particularly well designed from the point of view of HTML language. An attempt has been made to incorporate meta description and keywords but, unfortunately, these have been incorrectly tagged as simply "name". It is not impossible that some of the search engine spiders would still find the entries provided they were not programmed to specifically look for the correct meta tags. The colour scheme on the Home Page is not particularly happy, because many of the links are in red on a black background which makes the legibility very poor (in Figure 1, I have enhanced the contrast for clarity, because the direct monochrome conversion is illegible). This magazine is different from the previous ones in that the paper version can be obtained only by paid subscription. It is therefore perfectly understandable that the articles are not published in full, with the exception of the editorial. However, I still insist that providing abstracts would not detract from the utility of the Web site as a means of promoting the magazine: in fact, it would be enhanced. As in the last case, there seems to be a time lag between the publication of the paper version and that of the Web site version, again of the order of two-to-three months. The page containing the table of contents also has a number of advertisements but, as this is tucked away into the interior of the site, it is not obtrusive: in addition, the aggregate file length is considerably lower than that of the Home Page of any of the previously reviewed magazines. There are a couple of forums on the site, one specifically for lead-free solder and the other for general flexible circuit questions. These are not really forums in the usual sense of the word, rather than postings of e-mails on the subjects received at a specific address. They are not thread-oriented.
If I hadn't read, "EP&T Online is the Web-based companion to EP&T, Canada's leading electronics engineering publication" on the Home Page of this site, I would probably have ignored it altogether. EP&T stands for electronic products and technology and, theoretically, the subject fits ideally into this review. However, as an on-line magazine, it can unfortunately be classed only as hopeless. So much so, that I will not even criticise the Home Page - which is not good - and I shall summarise the rest by stating that there is no technical information whatsoever available on the site, nor even any information as to the contents of the printed magazine. As such, it fails miserably.
Table I Summary
On the whole, it must be said that all these sites are disappointing (Table I). In a way, it is rather surprising that the written media should be so inept when it comes to electronic media. On the other hand, when one considers the Web sites produced by graphists who are excellent at designing brochures on paper but are hopeless at designing Web sites, perhaps one should not be totally surprised. Paper and the computer screen are not the same. Oh, and by the way, not one of the sites had anything like an address or telephone number on the Home Page!
Brian EllisMosfiloti, Cyprus
Note1 "One of the greatest Romans, when asked what were his politics, replied, Imperium et Libertas. That would not make a bad programme for a British Ministry". Speech by Benjamin Disraeli given at the Mansion House, London, 10 November 1879.