RE: [ba-unrev-talk] Mozilla Rising
There's a MIME-type for an aggregation that is used when complete HTML plus
images are sent via E-mail, for example. Internet Explorer (since at least
5.0) will save a complete (with all included images) web page in that format
(called *.mht in that case) and what it looks like in the file is a mail
note with the MIME-type material in it. That is, they use the MIME
multipart technique as a standard for the encoding of the material in a
file. (01)
For multiple pages with dependencies, there is the HTML Help-systems
structure that both Netscape and Microsoft supported at one time. I don't
know what its present status is, but the current *.chm files implement it to
one degree or another. I mention this because there are HELP authoring
systems that can make these packages or create sets of Web pages with equal
facility. There is compression in *.chm packages, but I don't know what the
particular technique is. What is relevant here is that the matter of linking
within the package has been dealt with. (02)
The MIME multi-part encoding may be what is sought as an open specification.
(My understanding is that the PDF specification is semi-closed while Adobe
vibrates about intellectual property.) (03)
I don't know how far the HTML packaging used for HELP systems got as an open
specification, and how much of it is honored by current browsers and Help
kits. (04)
-- orcmid (05)
------------------
Dennis E. Hamilton
http://NuovoDoc.com/
mailto:dennis.hamilton@acm.org
tel. +1-206-932-6970
cell +1-206-779-9430
The Miser Project: http://miser-theory.info/
AIIM DMware: http://DMware.info/ (06)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-unrev-talk@bootstrap.org
[mailto:owner-ba-unrev-talk@bootstrap.org]On Behalf Of blincoln
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 12:37
To: ba-unrev-talk@bootstrap.org
Subject: Re: [ba-unrev-talk] Mozilla Rising (07)
[ ... ] (08)
Your mentioning that zip file type reminded me of something I have
yearned for as an archivist. An open-source, simple, all-in-one
browserable document type. PDF is a good example of what I'm talking
about, where the text and images are all contained in a single file
so its easy to manage. Compare this to an HTML document, where there
can be a dozen included images or script files which can be scattered
about like some diseased octopus. Very awful for archive management. (09)
The simplest idea is exactly something like you describe above, a zip
file (tar, whatever), which is recognized by the browser as an aggregate
item, has either an index file or a standardly-named file inside that it
opens as the main document, and all the images and script files are inside
the box. (010)
[ ... ] (011)