__     __ __     __ __     __      web's eye view                    08-25-97
| | /| / /| | /| / /| | /| / /      alan levine                          
| |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ /       Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction
|__/ |__/ |__/|__/  |__/|__/        http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/
..............New bag of URLs.......http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/
==============================================================================

What's New in the Web World?
As another semester rolls into full-speed, what is happening on the web?

Who can know for sure? 
                                    not any one person

The very nature of what one can do on the web is on the brink of the next
level, with "Dynamic HTML" or "DHTML". What this will allow you to do is to
very specifically control the location and appearance of your web page
elements, and through a scripting language like JavaScript or VisualBasic,
control it over time, so that it is "Dynamic".

It sounds great.

Here is the rub. The way it is implemented is different on NetScape's and
Microsoft's latest web browsers. As with many things computer-wise, an
increase in what you can do comes with an increase in the complexity it takes
to do that. Or in other words, this is a whole different ball game from
formatting web pages.

Yet, like with other web evolutions before, if you don't have a strong design
and thought behind the scenes, the dazzle will be distracting. There is
nothing wrong or un-interesting with creating a series of good old fashioned,
static web pages, as long as you have compelling content and design

But if you are interested in that bleeding edge, see first the new draft for
HTML 4 from the W3 Consortium:

  http://www.w3.org/
  
and bone up on the blurbs from the browser titans

  http://home.netscape.com/        http://www.microsoft.com/ie/
  
And see the Dynamic HTML Zone:

  http://www.dhtmlzone.com/
  

What's New in *Your* Web World?
We sense that there are a lot, perhaps we underestimate, how many Maricopa
faculty, staff, and students are involved in some manner with web development
or innovative use of the web. 

So we are asking you to tell us! Just what are you doin' on the web? For our
fall issue of MCLI's publication the "Labyrinth-Forum":

  http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/labyforum/
  
our theme for the Labyrinth is 'Who's doing What with Technology?" where we
will list by college, a short mention of all the different things that people
send us.

So if you are using the web in some way, please share a (very) short blurb to
Alan Levine.

And if you have not done so already, put a listing in our collection of
"Teaching and Learning on the WWW":

  http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tl/
  
You can do this automatically with the form linked from the main page.

Mathematical Symbols for Web Pages
Shahin Berisha of GateWay Community College asked recently if there was an
easier way to include mathematical expressions in web pages without the
laborious procedure of creating them as graphics.

There has been an un-finished part of the HTML standard to have Math HTML
codes that would generate the expressions from a series of new tags. See the
information and links from the W3 Consortium:

   http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Math/
   
Until that happens, there are a few other solutions. One that looked
interesting is WebEQ, a Java applet for including mathematical expressions in
web pages:

   http://www.geom.umn.edu/software/WebEQ/
   
Look also for a site that deals with this issue, Math Typesetting for the
Internet, which also examines the limitations with text-only e-mail:

   http://forum.swarthmore.edu/typesetting/index.html   



Some more URLs
Here are a few items from the latest Bag of URLs. If you have found something
interesting, share them with us via the "Drop In The Bag" form at:

  http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/drop.html

We've recently built a system which automatically collects the new submissions
and bulds a new issue, with but one click of the mouse!

OneLook Dictionaries 
Provides search service to more than one hundred disctionaries on the web. 
http://www.onelook.com/

the Why Files "Science Behind the News" 
explores of the science behind the news, featuring the science (and math,
engineering, and technology) of everyday life. 
http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/

The Elements of Style 
the online version of William Strunk's guide has been made available by the
Bartelby Project at Columbia University 
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/

Digital Cat's Java Resource Center 
Huge collection of information for Java and JavaScript, in English and
Japanese http://www.javacats.com/