Colloquium at Stanford
The Unfinished Revolution


Memorandum

Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 19:26:37 -0700

From:   Eric Armstrong
eric.armstrong@eng.sun.com>
Reply-To: unrev-II@egroups.com

To:     unrev-II@egroups.com

Subject:   Traction, by Twisted Systems
Supports Internet Explorer, But Not Netscape


I think it's a bit unfair to make the judgement without at least a conversation on the issue.

Like I said, this is the closest thing to a usable OHS/DKR I have seen to date. They've solved a heckuva a lot of problems I've been wrestling with.

If they chose to limit their activities to one browser, there are several possible explanations:

  1. Innocence

    Expecting things to operate reasonably in different browsers, not realizing that the world is so fundamentally flawed that corporations are incapable of rudimentary cooperation.

  2. Focus

    Choosing to focus on knowledge-domain issues, rather than the idiotic necessity of dealing with browser differences.

  3. Constraints

    Simply not having the time and people necessary to design for multiple environments.

  4. Functionality

    The browser they chose may give them needed functionality they really can't get otherwise.

I'm going to assume that the jury is still out on this one. I wonder, too, why it *wouldn't* work in Netscape (if it wouldn't). Maybe Mozilla was not available, and an XML-based browser was a requirement? Dunno.

Sincerely,



Eric Armstrong
eric.armstrong@eng.sun.com>