Len;

Terms such as “Browser Experience”, and “Virtual Reality” or any other phrase related to “Virtual”, have much in common in my book. They make me sick for one thing! Somehow through the vision I gather Bill Gates wishes to present and impose upon us is a world where we do everything through a browser. His of course!

We can shop for groceries through our browsers and have our orders delivered to our doors (Safeway and Albertson’s in our area – Web Van went bankrupt doing this). I cannot imagine a web order choosing meat or produce in the same manner you would choose it yourself. Movies can be viewed on our computers as well as our bank accounts. Even live television programs can be enjoyed by watching your computer screen. You can buy "virtually" anything through your browser (if you have a credit card, etc.).

Generations in the not too far distant future will upon being born, have a CRT and network connection attached to them permanently. They will live in an incubator for his/her entire life and never have to experience the world. Everything will be “virtual” even feelings.

My “virtual feelings” tell me that it is time to go and enjoy life. Enough of this! :)


Tom


>You've touched upon several of my favourite "bug-bears" there.
>
>Browser printing - a major pain.
>
>In fact a lot of Windows based printing - the minor little differences between printers often causing big layout problems. Use of obscure fonts - especially company specific ones, so you can't reproduce a printed document from the source file.
>
>Browser differences - especially between slightly different versions (ie no major releases) of the same browser.
>
>Sites that don't let you change font size, when it appropriate to do so - age is having an effect on my eyesight.
>
>Sites that let you change font size, when it isn't appropriate - often screws up layout big-time (I accept your reasons for disabling it)
>
>Experiences - I go shopping, I do NOT have a supermarket experience, I go to watch a film, I do NOT have a cinema experience, I search/browse/use (rarely surf) the internet, I do NOT have an internet/brower experience.
>
>Thanks for the comments.
>
>>Len;
>>
>>Excellent references and concepts – well done! Printing browser presented information is a great pain! First we have the issue of which browser will be in use and then for those of us who have corporate mandated browsers (IE) we have differences in how one browser version reacts compared to another.
>>
>>I have been called “cruel” by several developers whom I told I disabled the users ability to select View/Text Size and resize the browser font. My reasoning is simple – I must emulate preprinted forms. Still I have not been able to get some developers to understand correctly presented material is more important than the users “browser experience”!
>>
>>I have several major Intranet applications, which include reports. The reports were done in ASP as I have to use absolute positioning to insure that all objects and data are presented on the print out. Having more than one bag of tricks is so important to anyone who is a software developer! I intend to use a few of the tricks presented and do use CSS with great results on my forms which appear on screen.
>>
>>Thank you again.
>>
>>Tom