FAQ (Answers to Frequently Asked Questions) : $17


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FTX FAQ: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is FTX?

FTX is a text-based publishing format for making web pages on LUGNET. Pages can contain text, lists, images, hyperlinks, and more. For detailed information, please see the Tutorial or the quick-start page for the extremely impatient.

2. Do the initials FTX stand for anything?

FTX is short for “formatted text” (or, if you prefer, “fancy text” or “Fibblesnork text”).

(By the way, HTML is short for “hypertext markup language.”)

3. How is FTX different from HTML?

The main difference is that FTX is easier to read and write than HTML. Whereas a typical block of HTML might contain a mixture of text and “markup tags,” the same block of FTX content might contain a mixture of text and special formatting characters. FTX is more compact, more readable, and, hopefully, more natural.

For example, if you wanted to make a bulleted list like this...

I am really hungry!
Have you read Hamlet lately?
Press the Enter key.
NELUG stands for the New England LEGO Users Group.
The LEGO® Website has official information.

...then you might write it like this in HTML:

<UL> <LI>I am really hungry! <LI>Have you read Hamlet lately? <LI>Press the <TT>Enter</TT> key. <LI>NELUG stands for the New England LEGO Users Group. <LI>The <A HREF="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO® Website</A> has official information. </UL>

...or you could write it very simply like this in FTX:

* I am [really] hungry! * Have you read {Hamlet} lately? * Press the |Enter| key. * NELUG stands for the _N_ew _E_ngland _L_EGO _U_sers _G_roup. * The <http://www.lego.com/ LEGO® Website> has official information.

(Which do you find easier to read?)

4. Can FTX and HTML do the same things?

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to write paragraphs of text with hyperlinks or create simple tables or show a few images, then there is a lot of overlap between the two.

FTX is certainly not as general as HTML, but then it wasn’t designed to be. You can think of FTX as a very fast way to write formatted text or hypertext documents.

HTML can do almost everything that FTX can do. (In fact, the LUGNET server converts FTX pages to HTML before sending them to your web browser.) FTX cannot do everything that HTML can do, but it can do some things that HTML cannot do. For example, FTX pages may include copies of whole other FTX pages through a special kind of hyperlink which does not exist in HTML.

5. Can I upload my member pages in HTML?

Currently, no.

6. Why doesn’t LUGNET just use standard HTML for member pages?

There are several reasons -- some technical, others practical. First, we wanted to offer a way to create and edit webpages -- quickly and easily -- directly from a web browser window. Although this is possible with HTML, it is much more straightforward with a simpler format such as FTX. (We also wanted to offer an alternative to HTML for those without the time or desire to learn HTML.)

Second, several excellent “total solution” webpage hosting services (geocities.com, tripod.com, xoom.com, etc.) already offer complete HTML services (often for free). We feel that this type of “total solution” is best left to those who specialize exclusively in that sort of thing.

Third, although raw HTML is a totally wonderful tool, its complexity and extensibility make it extremely difficult to rid completely of trojan horses and other hobgoblins arising from popular embedded scripting extensions.

7. Have you considered offering a restricted subset of HTML for those who are comfortable with HTML?

Yes, it may be desirable to offer this someday. Certainly, when the disadvantages of not offering it outweigh the advantages of not offering it, we’ll very seriously consider offering a restricted subset of HTML as a second way to make pages. At the same time, or perhaps before, we’ll probably also offer storage of plain ASCII .txt files and LDraw data files.

8. Have you ever considered hosting image files (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs, etc.)?

Yes, in fact this was one of the very first things under consideration back in 1996 when LUGNET was still a drawing on the back of a restaurant placemat. The associated costs, however, are relatively high. The good news is that the cost of network bandwidth has fallen significantly over recent years and is expected to continue falling. There are also many free image-hosting services on the Internet, most notably Kevin Loch’s BrickShelf.com Gallery for LEGO enthusiasts.

8. Can other people edit my pages?

Not currently, no. However, it’s possible down the road that we may enable you to designate some of your pages as being editable by others. Exactly which pages and who could edit them would be up to you.

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