Clearly the king of integration, however, is Java. Java represents the first true attempt at an open, fully distributable, neutral, Internet execution machine. Java is powerful for a few key reasons. First, it is highly portable. It is tightly integrated with the Internet and can establish asynchronous threads of communications which stream data across the net (For more detail on Java, see Section 2. 1 Java/HotJava in Chapter 2 World Wide Web the Next Generation.)

Inevitably, you will be asked for advice on integrating some graphics with some text. Let's look at the problem from a different point of view the user's.

The decision to use one particular graphics format over another, or to advise someone else in that decision, has a subtle component the type of end user. It may be perfectly appropriate to give one person one solution and another person a different solution. Some user types are:

FRANTIC USER: Someone with too many things to do. Word and document processing are just painful things they have to do to get that damn document formatted and printed. Typically, these are frontline managers.

TECHIE USER: A technical professional who is usually focused on one particular job at a time.

SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR: Someone who isn't all that familiar with publishing systems, but on whom you depend to keep your computers and network running.

SECRETARY: Someone who is often worth more than the boss and is forced to live with whatever approach the "experts" choose.

In all cases, the format chosen must be usable by the publishing system familiar to the user. Some important questions are:

Does the integration process convert the native drawing format into another format that cannot be modified?

A conversion from a geometric representation to a bitmapped representation is a one way conversion. After the geometry is converted into a bitmap it would take a lot of trouble to go in the reverse direction, if at all. The notyetintegrated original geometric graphic must be maintained somewhere if changes are expected, raising the specter of configuration management.

Each type of user will have a different level of understanding and concern about these issues. Your responsibility as the expert is to balance these concerns with the requirements of the tasks at hand. It also pays to help educate the users so that they can eventually make these decisions for themselves or at least appreciate their complexity.

The advent of on-line publishing has enabled the introduction of new media such as sound with the rest of the publication. On-line documents can have sounds sprinkled throughout the text. Sounds can start playing either automatically when a page is first viewed, or when the user selects a particular icon, or with other user interface cues.

Many of the issues for integrating sound with a document are analogous to the integration of graphics with text. There are lots of formats and the decision to use one or another will affect the portability and longevity of your content.

First, a simple (very) explanation of the of sound file formats and the types of data and parameters involved. All the sound formats discussed concern the representation of "sampled" sound, not synthetically produced sounds (another topic beyond the scope of this book), such as the commonly used MIDI.

Sampling Rate: Sounds exist digitally as a collection of numbers that are the output of a sampling device over time. In other words, sound goes into a microphone through an A/D converter (analog to digital) and is output as a sequence of numbers. These numbers most directly correspond to the amplitude or loudness of the sound. The frequency of those numbers, i.e., how often each one occurs, is the sampling rate. For example, a sampling rate of 8k or 8Hz or 8000 means that 8000 times a second, a measurement of the sound level was taken and turned into a number.

Encoding: The entire collection of samples can be represented in many different ways. You can imagine that capturing sounds creates a lot of data, so, often, a compression format of some sort is used. The encoding refers to how the actual sample numbers are stored in the file. These can vary by being signed or unsigned, as bytes or short integers in a little-endian or big-endian byte order and so on. The compression, when used, is applied to the samples encoded in a particular way.

Most of the information below comes from a thorough FAQ on Audio File Formats by Guido van Rossum.(20)

One major aspect that distinguishes file formats is whether or not they are self-describing. From the FAQ - "There are two types of file formats: selfdescribing formats, where the device parameters and encoding are made explicit in some form of header, and 'raw' formats, where the device parameters and encoding are fixed."

Popular sampling rates from Guido van Rossum's audio FAQ are found in the following table:

8000

sec

none, NIST SPHERE to

DARPA speech commu

via

nity

sphere-

.mod or .nst, MOD samples;

samples.

Headerless Formats .snd, .fssd unsigned .ul LAW .snd? signed

In making the decision to use one sound format versus another, the most important factor will be the ability of your intended audience to listen to the sounds. If, for example, you expect users of mostly UNIX platforms to be the audience, then choosing the WAVE format would be a mistake, as WAVE players are rare. However, if your intended audience is a PC then the WAVE format would most likely be the format of choice. The .au format, originally for Suns, is probably the widest usable choice because the Netscape browser on PC and many UNIX platforms support it.

Digital Video is perhaps the most whiz-bang of all media types. It's still very cool to see little (but getting bigger) windows of video playing on your monitor. There are several video formats, each, of course, with advantages, disadvantages, and tricky issues.

Probably the most widely used digital video format is Apple's QuickTime. Apple beat all the other players, notably Microsoft, to the market and established a foothold. Wisely, Apple also created a Windows version of QuickTime so video sequences encoded as QuickTime can usually be played back on Macs or PCs.

Microsoft's equivalent is called AVI (Audio Video Interleaved), and the ubiquitous presence of WINTEL (Windows, Intel) machines make this a widely used format. There is, however, little AVI playback software for Macs. In addition, QuickTime players exist for many UNIX platforms, and AVI players don't or are certainly rare. Netscape's new version (3.0) of their browser will playback AVI video's inline.

While QuickTime and AVI are defacto proprietary specifications, Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) version 1 and 2 is a real formal standard. Initially, MPEG video files were THE choice for digital video on the Web, and they are still widely used. Unfortunately, the MPEG players rarely include support for sound, and even if they do, the content must have the sound encoded. Still, MPEG is a reasonable choice for silent Web videos.

MPEG hardware is becoming much more widely available for PCs and, in fact, many relatively low cost PCs come with support for MPEG-2. Actually, there are variants of MPEG imaginatively named MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. MPEG-3 used to exist, but was merged into MPEG-2.

MPEG-1 defines a bit stream for compressed video and audio optimized to fit into a bandwidth of 1.5Mb/sec. This is the data rate of audio CDs and DATS.

The objective of MPEG-2 is to define a bitstream for video and audio coded at 3-10 Mbits/sec. MPEG uses predictive motion from frame to frame in time. MPEG uses DCTs discrete cosine transforms to organize the redundancy in spatial directions. (Don't worry, I have no clue what DCT is either.)

MPEG-1 audio contains the specification for three different audio encoding methods for three different bit rates. Currently, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are finished, and you can buy software/hardware solutions to digitize and playback files. MPEG-4 is still in the works.

CD quality audio is sampled at 44100 samples/sec and 16 bits per sample = 1.4Mbit/sec.

Things, however, get complicated with the business of codecs. A codec (short for compressor decompressor) is the actual algorithm used to compress the digital data. Compression is THE big issue for digital video, because the amount of data needed to store 30 frames per second, the normal US (NTSC) video rate, is astounding. Ten seconds can easily take 15-20 Mb. Not a -reasonable thing to ask people with modems to view. .

When you record a sequence of video, you must then (either in real time or more frequently as a secondary post process) compress the data. By the way, in case you didn't realize it, you need hundreds of Mb of spare disk space to fool around with this stuff. Performance is also a major issue; suffice it to say you need a really fast disk drive as disk I/O is probably the single biggest performance issue.

Codecs generally try to optimize for different types of video content. For example, Apple's QuickTime comes with "Video" and "Animation" codecs. If you had a sequence of computer generated video, use the animation codec. Aside from quality issues, the codec also presents you, the author, with portability problems. If, for example, you digitize some video using the "Indeo" codec, you must ensure that viewers of your document-with-video also have the Indeo codec. No codec, no video.

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Standards can be used in many ways. Properly used document standards can improve quality and increase productivity. Most important, the proper use of standards will let you keep and reuse your investment in the document's content.

Standards are also an enabling technology. Both document interchange and electronic distribution depend on standards. In this chapter, we examine the use of document and electronic distribution standards.

Before we examine several of the ways in which standards can be used, let's step back from the trees and look at the forest again. What do standards provide and why bother at all?

one standard is a magic bullet is foolish, although technological developments often breed technology bigots. One particular new solution does not automatically negate others. Most standards have some value under certain circumstances. A few are extremely valuable under many circumstances. Value, however, often comes with a price tagcomplexity.

For any particular project, you may be the only one who understands the particular requirements. You may be the only one aware of the future uses or potential future uses of the documents. The potential for producing multiple products and using the document's raw content in multiple ways is a powerful reason to pay attention to standards. For example, one vendor can take an SGML document database and turn it into an on-line hypertext document.(1) Of course, some people suggest that you really need a compelling reason not to use HTML. If your project has archival requirements, standards are your best bet for maintaining the integrity of your archive. If none of these concerns is realistic, you may indeed be better off using systems that let you easily accomplish the project, rather than paying too much attention to standards.

Document standards are complex and address many types of document requirements. As is true of any complex technology, document standards can be misused. Usually, the fundamental assumptions of the standard form conceptual boundaries that are very difficult to cross. A good example of these boundaries are the various efforts over the years to provide style capabilities to SGML. SGML does not inherently take into account the visual appearance of a document. To provide such a capability, other standards are being developed with a great deal of effort and complexity.(2)

The first action you must take is to pick a standard. The selection process can become very complex. What is the budget? How long do you have to complete the project? Are new software and/or hardware systems required? Does the staff have sufficient expertise? Will the document be edited by another organization? You should ask these types of questions when deciding among the various document processing standards and systems.

An amazingly large number of complex standards are available. They have complex relationships with each other. A number of significant activities have evolved to pick and choose a set of standards that work together. The methods used by these activities can prove useful for any organization. The following list contains a few suggested questions to ask in the process of picking a document standard and document processing systems for a project.

Some industries have legal requirements that mandate that information must be available for 20 years or more. Airplane manufacturers are one example. In that period of time, all aspects of the computer systems will have changed, such as the hardware, operating system, and retrieval and display programs.

Is there a financial or other need to produce multiple products from the same content?

High up-front investment in content can be spread among several products if there is a mechanism (that is, the proper use of standards) for reusing the content.

Will the document be used by other departments or organizations for further editing or printing? In either case, you must check that the receiving system has the proper environment: the correct collection of software; fonts; and the ability to edit, view, or print any graphics included in the document.

If the document and/or the document processing system must be used in international markets on systems with other character sets, you must check that localized versions of the document processing system exist. In addition, there may be other foreign requirements, either corporate or government, that mandate the use of particular standards.

Ordering a switch from one document processing system to another may be more harmful than helpful. The expense in staff retraining can be significant. One alternative to a forced switch is to investigate document conversion systems or services. Of course, it may be wise to bite the bullet and adapt to newer or better technology.

Let's examine in more detail some aspects of the selection process and the use of standards once selected.

"We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.” -Henry David Thoreau

Many organizations have their own corporate style and publishing guidelines. Two areas that are often standardized are the document style and the document processing system.

Within any organization with substantial publishing requirements, it is important to look at the requirements for exchange, style, and systems. Document exchange is easy to overlook and is the source of many problems.

Perhaps the best example of a corporate publishing standard is the XEROX Publishing Standard: A Manual of Style and Design.(3) This book encompasses the entire range of printed material for the corporation. More than a specification of document types, it discusses the process of publishing, the structure of documents, writing style, and visual design. While it is an amazingly complete reference for the publishing process and standardized document style, it does not address any document exchange or processing issues.

Many organizations simply pick one system, such as WordPerfect, and declare it as the corporate standard. In some respects, this is a perfectly reasonable approach. It ensures that people can pass documents among one another reliably. It also has the significant downside of tying the organization to a particular software vendor and a particular hardware platform. In addition, your organization may have problems teaming with other organizations that use a different internal standard. It's almost always possible to come up with an ad hoc interchange solution, but eventually the effort required to maintain such a process will be greater than the benefit. Therefore, a careful analysis of document exchange and processing needs should pay off in the long term.

It is important to create an organizational style that is easy and convenient to use by the staff. One straightforward approach of ensuring this is to create an organizational style with a particular document processing system in mind. Doing so should not significantly constrain the document styles you desire, because even the simpler word processor systems have the ability to define sequences of actions (macros) and visual elements (styles). MS Word even has a built in language, called WordBasic, to define complex macros.

Organizationspecific styles and commands are useful tools to ensure document consistency throughout an organization. However, be aware that simply specifying a collection of styles and commands is insufficient. A document that lists recommended practices or provides a style guide must also be created and distributed to the staff so that everyone knows how to use the styles and commands.

The corporate style used by an organization can also get into the specifics of font selection. Apple Computer uses particular fonts in all its manuals and even prints the following identification inside the back covers of its manuals: "Text type and display type are Apple's corporate font, a condensed version ofGaramond. Bullets are ITCZapf Dingbats\xa8. Some elements, such as program listings, are set in Apple Courier, a fixed-width font.”

The specific font choices are not important, but consistency is extremely important. The consistent usage of fonts, headers and footers, document structuring conventions, and layouts will give your organization a more professional look. Readers will also get used to particular visual cues and become tuned to the document elements of interest.

Individual organizations select collections of standards and have the freedom to specify any type of software and hardware to implement and support those standards. Governments often cannot specify a particular vendor's product but must rely on a functional specification. The goal of vendor independence is also valuable for private business.

Any organization is wise not to use a sole source to address a particular problem. This is a well known principle of manufacturing; the manufacturer almost always will seek out multiple sources of components before starting production. This principle is much the same for software. Standards Profiles are one methodology used by the U.S. Government. They present guidelines for the selection of collections of standards that work together, allowing the government to choose from multiple sources of software components that conform to the standards.

In a literal sense, the phrase "using standards" is the subject of profiles. A profile is a collection of a particular set of specifications or standards to accomplish some function. The profile may also add restrictions to the exact usage of a standard. For example, military standards (MIL-STDS) can mandate the use of existing national or international standards with additional restrictions or functionality.(4) The Application Portability Profile (APP) is one methodology that is being used by the U.S. Government in the domain of open systems as a framework for systems integration.

From the Executive Summary of Application Portability Profile (APP) The U.S. Government's Open System Environment Profile Version 3.0(5):

An Open System Environment (OSE) encompasses the functionality needed to provide interoperability, portability, and scalability of computerized applications distributed across networks of heterogeneous, multivendor hardware/software/communications platforms. The OSE forms an extensible framework that allows services, interfaces, protocols, and supporting data formats to be defined in terms of nonproprietary specifications that evolve through open (public), consensus-based forums.

A selected suite of specifications that define the interfaces, services, protocols, and data formats for a particular class or domain of applications is called a profile. The Application

The APP refers both to ODA ■ and SGML as possible document interchange standards. There is no attempt to reconcile differences in functionality; however, both sit in the architectural "slot" of data interchange services.

The entire methodology of profiles makes an amazing amount of sense. The term profiles in this context comes from the formal standards domain. From The Open Book by Marshall Rose comes the following explanation:(6)

A standard often contains many more options than can be implemented altogether. If each vendor implements only a subset of options, there is no guarantee that any two vendors will implement the same subset. The result is systems that are interoperable in theory, but not in practice!

An important pragmatic step is to identify a common subset of options and related practices that can be used effectively. This is the purpose of groups that promulgate functional profiles.

Standards are often meant to operate in areas of very different scope. Profiles provide a framework within which the standards function.'

For example, a document archive system may need to function at many different levels.

At the system level, there is the operating system; at the database level, there is the query language; at the document level, there are textretrieval issues; at the document content level, there is structure. In addition, for viewing or printing purposes, there are font issues, and for document interchange purposes, all the above affect the system. Standards exist for each of these domains, and profiles provide guidance for their use.

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7333	One third of the Mac sampling rate (rarely
seen).
8000	Exactly 8000 samples/sec is a telephony standard that goes together with U-
LAW	(and also A-LAW) encoding. Some systems use a slightly different rate; in
particu	lar, the NeXT workstation uses 8012.8210513, apparently the rate used by
Telco	CODECs.
11 k	Either 11025, a quarter of the CD sampling rate, or half the Mac sampling rate
(per	haps the most popular rate on the
Mac).
16000	Used by, e.g. the G.722 compression
standard.
18.9 k	CD-ROM/XA
standard.
22 k	Either 22050, half the CD sampling rate, or the Mac rate; the latter is
precisely	22254.545454545454 but usually misquoted as 22000. (Historical
note:	22254.5454... was the horizontal scan rate of the original 128k
Mac.)
32000	Used in digital radio, NICAM (Nearly Instantaneous Compandable Audio
Matrix	[IBA/BREMA/BBC]) and other TV work, at least in the UK; also long play
DAT	and Japanese
HDTV.
37.8 k	CD-ROM/XA standard for higher
quality.
44056	This weird rate is used by professional audio equipment to fit an integral number
of	samples in a video
frame.
44100	The CD sampling rate. (DAT players recording digitally from CD also use this
rate.)
48000	The DAT (Digital Audio Tape) sampling rate for domestic
use.

Files samples on SoundBlaster hardware have sampling The name of the format is often just the file extension.		rates that are divisors of 1,000,000. ^Dsound Format Characteristics
Name	Native Platform/	Sampling Rate Number of
Notes
	Origin	Channels
(1
		mono, 2
stereo)
au or .snd	NeXT, Sun	variable 1 or 2	header with
info
			string
.aif(f), AIFF, AIFC Apple, SGI		variable 1 or 2	header with lots
of
			info, AIFC
version
			has
compression
.iff, IFF/8SVX	Amiga	variable 1 or 2	also has 8 bits
of
			instrument
info
.voc	Soundblaster	8 bits 1	can use
silence
			detection
.wav, WAVE	PCs - Microsoft	variable 1 or 2	lots of
info
.sf	IRCAM	variable 1 or 2	encoding and
other
			info
none, HCOM	Mac	8 bits 1
Huffman
			compression
none, MIME	Internet		audio/basic 8 bit
U-
			LAW

Name	Native Platform/	Sampling Rate	Number of
Notes	Origin		Channels
(1			mono, 2
stereo)
QuickTime	Macintosh	variable	1 or 2	Apple
origin				available on
PCs				variety of
CODECs
AVI	PCs	variable	1 or 2	Microsoft
origin				variety of
CODECs
MPEG 1	na (standard)	1.5 Mb/sec play	1 or 2	frame
differencing
ISO/IEC 11172		back rate
(uncom		pressed audio
CDs
MPEG 2	na (standard)	intended for broad	1 or 2 + sur	frame
differencing
ISO/IEC 13818		cast video	round
sound			channels
JPEG Motion Video	NOT a standard		n/a
vendordependent
M-JPEG
implementations				(dangerous)