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1. MTO is Framed!
Readers will notice a new look in MTO after seeing the essay,
commentary, and review in this issue. We are now using "frames." Frames allow
the browser window to be divided up into separate sub-windows
(frames), each of which may contain a separate,
scrollable document, each with an independent set of hypertext
links. Netscape introduced frames last year, in version 2.0,
and they have since become ubiquitous on the Web. At first,
only Netscape's browser (Navigator) supported frames. Microsoft
began supporting them with version 3.0 of their browser
(Internet Explorer). The most common non-graphical browser,
Lynx, has apparently not been developed for some time, and does
not support frames. A separate version of MTO items will be
available for readers who use Lynx. ASCII versions of all items
will continue to be available.
Featured pieces in MTO (essays, commentaries, reviews) will be
displayed in two or three frames. A sidebar running down
the left side of the browser window will contain links to
musical examples, as well as links to other MTO and SMT pages.
The sidebar may be resized (widened, narrowed) by clicking on
the frame border, holding down the mouse button, and moving
the border to the right or left. Following links in the sidebar
will automatically open a second browser window so that readers
can view musical examples and text at the same time simply by
activating one window or the other. Sidebar links to examples
are useful for returning quickly to previously viewed examples.
The second window may be closed at any time, though it is handy
to keep it open. If closed, the second window will reopen on
following another example link, or any of the other sidebar
links.
The largest frame contains the main text. It, too, has links
to the examples which, again, are displayed in a second window.
If the text has footnotes, they are displayed in a third,
horizontally-oriented, resizable frame at the bottom of the
window. Following a footnote link in the text will cause the
associated footnote to appear at the top of the third frame.
It is thus now possible to read footnotes while keeping an eye
on the main text.
Readers who use Netscape Navigator 1.x or Internet Explorer
2.x may want to upgrade to version 3.0 of either browser
if they haven't done so already. Those who use a non-graphical
browser or who read MTO in ASCII format may rest assured that
non-frame versions of all items will be available. However,
we urge all subscribers to change to a frame-enabled, graphical
browser, if possible, in order to take full advantage of MTO's
multimedia and new display features.
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2. Commentaries
At times, traffic on mto-talk has been quite heavy, and
occasionally the postings have become rather lengthy. The
original purpose of 'talk' was to carry short postings (up to
ca. 50 lines of text) to stimulate rapid peer responses. While
long postings (4-5 or more screens) may be very interesting,
subscribers who receive many email messages daily may not
take the time to read such long ones. We invite mto-talk
participants to consider submitting their remarks for
publication in MTO as commentaries. These must be prepared
according to certain relatively simple guidelines (MTO staff
make up HTML versions), and are likely to be read more
carefully and by more people than extensive postings to
mto-talk. By no means do we want to stifle the discussion
list; if that seems the best place for commentary, then so
be it. However, we would like to remind subscribers of the
option to publish remarks in MTO, and to point out the possible
advantages of doing that. Please contact the General Editor if you have a submission.
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3. Volunteerism: MTO Wants You!
As Web technology has advanced, and as more people have acquired
the necessary hard and software to take advantage of that
technology, the possibilities for enhancing MTO as a multimedia
publication have grown exponentially. With a small, volunteer
staff (full-time faculty and students), it has not been possible
to keep pace with recent developments, particularly with regard
to making MTO pages more interactive through Java and JavaScript.
The talents of those who have such programming skills could be
put to good use, and would be much appreciated by the MTO staff
and our readers. Contact the General Editor if you would like
to volunteer.
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Lee A. Rothfarb, General Editor
Music Theory Online
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6070
U.S.A.
mto-editor@societymusictheory.org
voice: (805) 893-7527 (with voice mail)
fax: (805) 893-7194