Dominic Ryan wrote,

The abandoning of that mode is part of the thought that must go into it that I was alluding to. But, I would like to see a smarter browser (or perhaps composition tool) that would make it easy to assemble the main point as the main page, with all the supporting information as links that could be tailored to a customizable level of desired detail. ... intro.historcal .controversial

Such divisions are likely to be contentious, and probably undefinable. But it does emphasize that as authors, we all will have to learn how to structure an article. This, in many ways, is what the XML initiative currently under way is all about. XML would in principle at least allow a framework for such divisions. More interestingly, once a chemistry article is marked up, it can be re-displayed using smart browsers to whatever level of detail is desired, and maybe even beyond the level to which the author has marked it up, if one includes heuristics in the browser. For example, if one is looking at the molecule, one could automatically generate links to "similar" molecules in the document collection. A lot of what Dominic describes is actually already present in the CML examples produced by Peter Murray-Rust, and is browsable in the way Dominic suggests using his JUMBO (Java Universal Molecular Browser). You can try this out from the ECHET96 CD-ROM (available in issue 6 of ChemComm). A much more complete release of CML/XML/JUMBO is currently in preparation from the Open Molecule Foundation, and is expected to become available during the summer. The point I would make is that if we learn to think in terms of the structure of a collection of ideas and data, we can achieve much more than if we accept e.g. PDF files as the paradigm. PDF as I see it, does nothing to encourage people to think about such structures, it only encourages them to print in the traditional linear style. Where in this, I ask, is the "added-value" a publisher is supposed to impart? Henry Rzepa. +44 171 594 5774 (Office) +44 594 5804 (Fax) chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)