How functions: transcending the Web as GUI. I

The HTML element This is a searchable index. Enter search keywords: was the primordial step towards today's interactive World Wide Web, but the browser we see today was not dealt from the original deck of Web technology. The modern element, for example ristling with drop-downs, radio buttons, file uploads and text boxes-only dates back to Dave Raggett's HTML+ proposals from July to November 1993. Of all the battle fronts in the Browser Wars, this one has remained the quietest. There's been little innovation here since the initial Mosaic release. Instead, the long interregnum we're passing through has delivered a slew of media- and device-specific interaction markup languages for hand-helds, voice, paper forms, and so on. This article traces the haphazard evolution of user interface description languages (UIDLs) for the Web.