Colophon
How We Look How We Look
In paper book publishing, a colophon is a statement about the typeface used in the book, the design, and sometimes the
mechanical process used to set the type.
The Zone of a Thousand Faces
As a Web publication, Enterzone does not wear one specific set of fonts, line lengths, relative type sizes, and so on.
Different Web browsers (www, lynx, Mosaic, MacWeb, WinWeb, Cello, Netscape, and so on) all may display each specific
design element differently. As the reader, in fact, you have ultimate control over the appearance of your Web documents.
Because of this, Enterzone has a distinct style but it's based on the logical precedence of headings and the use of
standard elements, always coded the same way. Whenever possible, the logical "intentions" of the elements have been
preserved, so that a sensibly set-up browser will display the contents of Enterzone in a clear and understandable way.
Casting Our Net as Widely As Possible
We favor logical coding over specific-appearance coding because we believe in the principle of serving as many different
platforms and users as possible. Sure, we could apply all of our graphic design and layout skills to create an idealized
immutable Enterzone appearance in a single browser (such as Netscape) but then the readers logging onto the Internet via
UNIX boxes and running lynx may get a load of crap when they enter the zone. That would not be right. (Extra credit: Can
you spot the single use of a Netscape-specific code in Enterzone?)
Why the Poems Appear in a Monospace Font
Designed for easy sharing of technical information, the Web falls short when the exact appearance of text matters. This
becomes an issue when we publish poetry. The Web is a beautiful medium for poetry, because it serves poems and other short
word creations up so easily that the reader can't help but read them. But in order to force the "shape" of a poem -- line
breaks, indentation, and so on -- we must resort to coding them as "preformatted" text, the only kind a Web server will
serve up as is. This results in the typewriter style font you get on the poetry pages.
Techie Details
Enterzone was and is being created on a large number of sometimes recalcitrant computers, typewriters, notebooks, and
telephones. Enterzone is served to you by MacHTTP 2.0.1 running on a Quadra 650. The Quadra speaks IP courtesy of
MacTCP 2.04, and is connected to the Internet by a 128kbps ISDN link. Plenty of AppleScripts keep the forms hopping.
Among other machines, we used a 386SX-40 running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11, a Mac IIci running System 7.01, and a Power
Macintosh 6100/60 on System 7.5. Too many text editors, html editors, graphics editors, squeezing, unsqueezing, archiving,
unarchiving, converting, uncoverting, coding, encoding, smashing and unsmashing utilities were used to mention all by
name. Just be glad they exist.
We even used U.S. Postal Service version 0.92b when file formats just could not be
resolved. Finally throw in the standard keystone kops maneuvers late at night converting files, shoving UNIX inside of mac
formats and then back out again six ways to Sunday.
Masthead
Statement of Purpose
Path of Least Resistance
Cover of Episode 1
Enterzone Home Page