RE: Why not a Web-based ATM journal?

["Andersen, Clark R." <clanders@utmb.edu>]

I think it's a great idea, and I believe that all the objections I've heard
can be dealt with.  The main difficulty which I'd foresee with getting this
(or any other) project underway would be finding the people willing to
commit their time to the project.  It seems that most people have fairly
full lives, and are understandably hesitant to take-on additional
responsibilities.  Many may say "sure, I'll do it" when asked, but later
turn-out to be the ones who keep making excuses or not responding when
something actually needs done.

As to this notion of HTML being fly-by-night, versus ASCII...  ASCII is
useable as a subset of HTML, and HTML has the advantage of permitting
non-english alphabets to be used.  Every web browser and many wordprocesser
and mail programs can handle standard HTML, and if something non-standard
(like some commands used by Netscape & Explorer) is used, it is simply
ignored.  Not only is HTML not fading away, it is being extended to be yet
more useful, capable of handling such things as mathematics and chemistry.
I would have to say that HTML is likely to be far more stable in the long
term than ASCII, so long as those using it stick to the current ISO (ANSI?)
standards.  One of the most obvious benefits of a journal based upon HTML is
that it looks as nice when printed to paper as it does on the screen.

Then there's Java.  At this time I, too, would be hesitant to treat it as
any sort of long-lasting standard.  Perhaps in another decade.  C code, on
the other hand, remains very portable, but has been superseded by C++, which
is largely an object oriented version of C.  The last I checked, C++ was the
principal programming language used for professional software development,
superceding the bulk of those old languages like Pascal, Fortran, Cobol,
etceteras.  (Incidentally, Java is essentially a web-safe derivation of
C++).  I confidently expect that some derivation of C++ will still be with
us in 2100, and most current portable code will still be useable.  For the
moment I would suggest keeping anything beyond HTML and its derivatives off
of any ATM Journal site.  A server would be best developed in C++.

One more thing--just gotta get this minor rant out of my system :)  I find
it hard to conceive that people capable of building telescopes would be
unable to manage some form of Web access and further coping with simple HTML
scripts.

Clark Andersen