| Most people are not taught HTML. They "pick it up on the Web". If they get
| confused, they ask someone or look it up in a book.
---Yes, and I assume that once stylesheets are supported, the examples they see will begin to have common, standard stylesheet references in them and will use class= attributes.
--- | The direct style attribute blurs the line between style sheets and HTML and | makes it more difficult to learn one without the other.---Maybe, but I would expect direct styling to be used so infrequently that the novice would be unlikely to be confused.
--- | Within weeks of the | release of the stylesheet enhanced Netscape, wg-html will be swamped with | requests for more "HTML style sheet tags." "I wish HTML supported | florescent hyphenation"---So?
--- | If it were really the case that "one more feature" would not make a language | harder to learn, then every language could have every feature. Those of us | (and this may well include you, Scott) who have programmed in languages that | have every feature know that this is _not_ the case. Extra features do make | a language harder to learn, especially if they are features that blur the | difference between components of the system.---Extra features *can* make it harder to use a language. I think they *must* make it harder to use a language like a native, but not every language is structured in a way that makes learning a subset impractical.
--- | Further, if those features blatantly overlap the abilities of another part | of the system, most people will think: "I must not understand this system. | Surely there is some difference between these two features."---So, how do you feel about naked lambdas in LISP (a language which does a good job of not forcing you to name things unless they need names)? Do you think LISP would be a "better" language if every function had to be created with defun?
scott
-- scott preece motorola/mcg urbana design center 1101 e. university, urbana, il 61801 phone: 217-384-8589 fax: 217-384-8550 internet mail: preece@urbana.mcd.mot.com