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Subject:HTML vs. Adobe Acrobat From:David Blyth <dblyth -at- QUALCOMM -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 23 Mar 1996 15:24:40 -0700
dblyth>The Internet runs on speed, _not_ lingua franca.
Arlen>You should try the Internet *I* keep seeing. Fifteen minutes at one site
Arlen>today, because the only navigation provided was in the form of 100+K
Arlen>imagemaps!
I agree that some sites are slow. I disagree that this is a function
of HTML. This is bad design, not something inherent to the language.
BTW, if you're using Netscape, try turning off image loading altogether
(Options --> Autoload images). Web site design conventions (if they
are followed) provide text only alternatives. Or just click on "Stop".
Images can be manually loaded if needed.
dblyth>HTML is virtually instant.
Arlen>On my machine they end up about the same.
Not mine. It may depend on the platform. However, HTML is ascii. PDF
is compiled binary.
dblyth>Netscape offers e-mail, news, ftp, VRML, chat-rooms,
dblyth>plug-ins, Java, Javascript, helpers, and other features.
dblyth>Acrobat offers slow helpers.
Arlen>Why is it always couched as "either/or?" "Both/and" is more like it.
This is precisely my point. "Both/And" is absolutely the way to go.
Therefore, you must use a browser, because Adobe Acrobat does not provide
"both a browser and Adobe Acrobat". Netscape 2.0 with Adobe Amber does.
That saves me about 3 Mbytes of RAM because I'm not running Adobe Acrobat.
I'm only running Netscape 2.0 - and I _still_ read PDF.
Netscape 2.0 + plug-ins also lets you:
o Read Word6 files without invoking Word (3 Mbytes RAM)
o Read Excel files without invoking Excel (4 Mbtyes RAM)
o Read Tumbleweed Envoy files without invoking Tumbleweed
o Read Macromedia files without invoking Director
To say nothing of the other 17 plug-ins.
Here's the deal. If you can show me that wasting _just_ the 3 Mbytes
of RAM used by Acrobat is a good idea, then you have a much better
chance of convincing me to run Adobe Acrobat instead of Netscape 2.0.
David (The Real One) Blyth
Technical Writer/Web Site Designer
QUALCOMM - standard disclaimers apply
