From: wiskott@salk.edu (Laurenz Wiskott)
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 11:27:58 -0800
To: timbl@w3.org
Subject: Style Guide for online hypertext




	Dear Tim,

thanks for this nice page.  I think it is really crucial to strive for
a good WWW style, otherwise one gets drowned in the floods of
unstructured WWW-pages.

Here are two commments:

1) I think one should stick as long as possible with the standard text
elements of HTML and not introduce new elements in form of inlined
images just because it looks nicer.  I have seen documents, where a
list was decorated with little colored spots instead of the standard
black or white ones.  It was not clear that the colors did have any
meaning.  The problem with that is that over long distances one may
want to use the delayed-image-loading option.  If the images are not
loaded the whole layout screws up.  And it is annoying to click on all
the missing image icons just to see a colored spot apearing.  If one
would do a global image-loading, one might have to wait for the
loading of a big image that one is not interested in.

2) I think it is a good habit to give the user a clear clue on what he
can expect by following a link.  Information such as the size of a
file or the type of data behind a link spares time waiting for
information that one is not interested in.  I was once looking for
information about universities.  In an introduction I saw the link
"... Rogers University ...", I clicked on it and, since it was a huge
file, waited for several minutes till it was loaded.  What came up was
just a big, colorful image of the gate of the university, obviously
not what I was waiting for.

	Best regards,

		Laurenz.

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