neff@sierra.Stanford.EDU (Randall B. Neff) (07/18/89)
------ The Cynic's Guide to Software Engineering ------ ------ an invitation to dialogue, starting with the personal view of ------ ------ Randall Neff @ anna.stanford.edu ------ ------ June 29, 1989 part 8 ------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Standard for Standards Distribution I recently received the Summer 1989 IEEE Standards Catalog in the mail. On page 5, there is a sidebar titled: "IEEE Standards Launches Hypertext Series". Quoting: "Very soon, the IEEE Standards Department will begin to release selected standards in a new electronic form--hypertext." Sounds good to me. Reading on, however, I discover that the hypertext being used is HyperTRANS(tm) Software from Texas Instruments, for only MS-DOS (IBM PC compatibles). So while at Stanford where I am using SUN workstations, DEC workstations, Vaxen, Sequent Symmetry, etc, I would have to go home to my IBM PC to read the Standards. The difficulty is that there is a real need for a public domain hypertext file Standard. Apple blew the lead in hypertext by making their file format top secret and destroying the portability of HyperCard(tm) by requiring external functions and external commands written specifically for Motorola 680x0s. Since the IEEE is a Standards setting organization, it would seem that they could define a machine readable ASCII file format for hypertext, and publish their Standards in that standard format. Putting the Standards on-line on ARPANET would greatly ease the distribution through ftp and would widely and quickly spread the Standards. Note that the X window and the GNU software documentation is distributed this way; and the Ada LRM is available through ftp. Once the file format is defined, independent groups can write their own hypertext readers, in a similar fashion to the different USENET news readers available and the different X window managers being used and developed. The first level file format requires: labels for the pages and page breaks. define text buttons and targets (page, line, column). editor for the format (GNU EMACS macros?). The second level file format requires: color graphics (X window primatives?). graphic buttons. font names and exact formatting (LaTeX?). graphic / page layout editor. The third level file format requires: embedded `programming language'. editor / debugger for language. I strongly disagree with using a proprietary format with a trademarked name for the Standards; and I strongly disagree with putting the Standards on a `toy' computer such as the IBM PC compatibles. An acceptable option would be the publication of the HyperTrans file format and releasing it to the public domain. Randall Neff@anna.stanford.edu