4 ms·
As an AmigaOS 3.1 stalwart unable to view HTML5 content, I’d love to see an Internet partially based upon a TeX-like markup. Rather than “<!DOCTYPE html>”, such
by kingmanaz 14y ago
As an AmigaOS 3.1 stalwart unable to view HTML5 content, I’d love to see an Internet partially based upon a TeX-like markup. Rather than “<!DOCTYPE html>”, such a document would use “<!DOCTYPE typeset>”. An alternative browser would parse and present the markup when either the doctype is encountered, or a “.ts” extension is linked to. Typeset content would be displayed using the traditional tricks of typesetting: kerning, proper justification, avoidance of rivers, optimal reading line-length, etc. Here’s a sample of what the web could be: http://i.stack.imgur.com/W9uon.jpg http://i.stack.imgur.com/W9uon.jpg .
More often than not, today’s Web is gaudy and garish, as 99% of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript’s functionality is unneeded for everyday reading. For plain reading a Typeset browser and typesetting-friendly markup would an improvement over the status quo, wherein every man reinvents the art of typesetting at his website, and often with tragic results.
- ChrisLTD 14y agoThis is why Instapaper and similar services have a market. We should be thankful that enough of the web is parseable for these tools to work and not stuck in something like a Flash file.
- drdaeman 14y agoFlash file is parseable too, just harder to parse. (And it still is, even if text is converted to curves.) The real problem is, websites are not much of documents anymore. Their parts are steadily moving up the Chomsky hierarchy, becoming programs.
- leephillips 14y agoWell, a good fraction of serious online content is in the form of PDFs created with LaTeX or a close relative. But it would be really interesting to have a browser that incorporated the TeX engine, and could typeset from TeX source to the current window width. And there is recent progress on javascript implementations of TeX.
- nickzoic 14y agoOr you could just improve the text rendering engine of a normal HTML browser to do better typesetting. That'd make your HTML2.0 content look nice too! It isn't like using TeX is any guarantee of niceness: http://www.ieee.org/documents/TRANS-JOUR.pdf http://www.ieee.org/documents/TRANS-JOUR.pdf
- zimpenfish 14y agoYeah, anyone presenting web pages to me with huge drop caps like that is asking for a visit from Mrs Clue Bat and her friend Violent Swing.