WWW6: status report from the W3C user interface domain

user interface domain: connecting people with computers:

the user interface domain presented during the last 12 month the following recommendations:

1. PNG (Portable Network Graphics): released on 7-oct-1996, it describes a portable, well-compressed, patient free replacement for the GIF format.
2. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) V1.0: released on 17-dec-1996, provides a means to separate contents from presentation.
3. HTML V3.2: released on 14-jan-1997, the long awaited successor of HTML V2.0

there are three working groups (WG) within the user interface domain, which are currently working on the following issues:

• HyperText Markup Language (HTML): richness versus simplicity, accessibility and platform independence
• Cascading Style Sheets and Formatting Properties (CSS & FP): CSS V2.0 and other means of formatting
• Document Object Model (DOM): define an API for applications to manipulate the structure, presentation and contents of a document (already implemented in MSIE V4.0)

further activities include fonts (currently part of the CSS & FP WG) and internationalization (mixed languages, large character sets, layout, handling of undisplayable characters, language negotiation).

the user interface domain provides Amaya as a sample code. Amaya is a browser and an editing tool and is available for various UNIX systems. also, the source code is available freely for testing and experimenting.

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