At 23:48 14/03/02 +0000, you wrote:
>I concur, Tony, although it took a little longer (5 mins) on my 56K dialup.
>
>Just a quick reminder that the W3C has published the SVG (Scaleable Vector
>Graphics) standard as a part of XML, and people like Adobe & the browser
>manufacturers already are & will be supporting it. You can check it out at:
>http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.html
Dear All,
We need to be honest and admit we cannot always get it right:
(a) "Let's base everything only on technology that exists today"
Anyone remember the Computers in Teaching Initiative phase 1? CTI was an
HE-sector programme whose later phases mainly funded discipline-specific
advisory centres. However, phase 1 tried to develop software, with a
strong bias to existing UK technologies. This led, at least in the
geography-focused projects, to projects trying to do fancy graphics by
directly driving the hardware or low-level BIOS software of BBC Micros, RM
Nimbuses and a strange ICL multi-user system. The results were mostly
obsolete the day they were completed.
We have to try and anticipate the future.
(b) "Let's rely only on emerging open standards"
Anyone remember VRML? (Virtual Reality Modeling or Mark-Up
Language). This one I got wrong. It sounded great: developed by an open
internet based community, with support from the W3C, so lots of people were
developing plug-ins. Trouble was, none of them ever quite got
finished. Scalable Vector Graphics looks interesting but could easily go
the same way as the only widely-used software that currently supports it is
from Adobe, who clearly see its "openness" as a USP in trying to dislodge
Macromedia Flash's hold on the market. I could also mention TCL/TK, which
we did a lot of work with at one stage. Part of the point about Java,
incidentally, is that it is not going to go away because of the hold it has
established on server-side and data center computing: we are using it to
generate end-user content on our server for reasons quite unrelated to the
original enthusiasm for applets.
(c) "Our salvation lies in software"
I can see why this is attractive: more or less all successful internet
standards use free client-side software, so there is always the promise
that the functionality of your end-user systems will improve with no
expenditure at all -- and for schools and public libraries that clearly
matters. However, new software solutions often turn out to run very slowly
on old hardware, and the hardware environment does move on. One particular
aspect of this is network connection speed. Broadband internet has been
promised for so long that it is easy to understand why people have lost
faith, but availability is improving and prices are dropping. I had a 576K
bps DSL link at home installed by BT in January and the price has now
dropped to Pnds 30 per month. This is surely into the range where mass
take up will finally start, and you will understand why I had forgotten
about the problem with GeoTools initial download time.
Of course, there are (fixable) problems getting broadband access in many
rural areas, and it will be a long time if ever before this kind of speed
is available over wireless links, but James and I have emphasised that many
uses of our site will not use GeoTools at all, and we do have fall-back
solutions for those who want to do data visualisation via server-side code.
Best wishes,
Humphrey Southall
======================================================
Humphrey Southall
Reader in Geography/Director, Great Britain Historical GIS Project
Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth
Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE
GIS Project Office: (023) 9284 2500
Home office: (020) 8853 0396
Mobile: (07736) 727928
Web site: http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/gbhgis
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