FROM MARX TO MAO

    All of the material contained in this Website was prepared using a Mac SE/30; as such, all of the lay-out and formating of the texts in From Marx to Mao has been (and will continue to be) constrained by the limitations of a monitor with only an 8 1/2" diagonal viewing area! Although this doesn't present any problems when viewing only textual material, it is very much a problem when it comes to presenting data in tabular form. The "schemes of reproduction" in Capital, Vol. II, for example, as well as many of Lenin's concrete studies of the development of capitalism and the process of class differentiation, especially in agriculture, make extensive use of data tables. According, if you are a "low-end user" with a relatively tiny viewing area like myself be advised that you will have to size your browser window to encompass the entire width of the screen (roughly 7 inches). Similarly, although less important, many of the documents include a table of contents which will appear as a colossal mess unless the browser is set to the maximum possible screen width. Those possessing larger monitors (the vast majority, I assume) will, of course have no problem, although the table of contents in many of the texts will undoubtedly appear to lack "a sense of proportion" if the viewing area is much wider than 7 inches.

    All of the text in the documents was written in 12 point Geneva, all of the data tables use 9 and 10 point Geneva, and all of the files were prepared using Netscape. That should say it all. If you use Netscape 2.0 or higher, and set the "proportional font" to Geneva, you'll have no problems. (If you don't know how to do this, go to "Options," then to "General Preferences," then to "Fonts," and finally set the "proportional font" to Geneva.) But there is a little more that should said.

    Notwithstanding my best efforts, I failed miserably in my goal to prepare this material for viewing on "any" browser. Off the top, you'll need a graphic browser. Marx's symbolic notation and some of his formulas in Capital, Vol. II, (as well as a page in one of Lenin's texts) could not be properly reproduced (at least by me) with current HTML standards (3.2). Although rather unaesthetic renderings were possible in many instances (using "pre-formatted text"), there were some instances where I had to use image files to properly (i.e., unambiguously and unobtrusively) present Marx's notation to the reader. Accordingly, a "graphic" brower is preferable, although not "absolutely necessary" if you're absolutely stuck with a "non-graphic" browser. If the latter is the case, I have provided footnotes that try to offer an accurate discription of what you're "not seeing" and I have included my "unaesthethic renderings" in the source code of the relevant pages of the text.

    Of the graphic browsers, I am only familiar with Netscape, Internet Explorer, and Mosaic (which for the last few months repeatedly crashes my machine when launched). One necessarily gains a deeper appreciation (or lack thereof) of the features of specific browers when forced to prepared documents that involve more than straight text. Trying to make allowances for the variations between different browsers (as well as those between successive versions of the same browser) is very time-consuming and often seems like a waste of time.

    Still, every effort has been made to prepare the various texts for viewing with either Netscape or Internet Explorer. There are, however, a few exceptions. (They are identifiable by the presence of an asterisk (*) after the title). Given the choice between Netscape and Internet Explorer, the latter proved to be too inflexible and limited (at least until I learn how better to use it?) for the demands of the texts that included tabular data and "pre-formatted text". You may find the following little table useful; it tries to summerize the strengths and weakness of the two browsers based only on my experience with them in relation to the requirements of the material in this Website using an antiquated Mac. (I have no experience with the "Wintel" platform and would appreciate any guidance from those of you who do.)

	Pre- formatted text	Tables (layout, etc.)	"Refreshes" the page	Max. file size (est.)	Image "noise"	RAM require- ments (MB)	Type of Mac Supported
							68k	Power Mac
Netscape 1.1N	terrible	so-so	where you left off (fast)	350k	no	2-4	yes	yes
Netscape 2.0	fine	very good control	where you left off (fast)	450k	YES	2.1-4.3	yes	yes
Netscape 3.0	fine	very good control	where you left off (fast)	?	YES	9	yes	yes
Internet Explorer 2.0	terrible	only the basics	at the very beginning (slow)	550k	no	2.1-4.1	yes	yes
Internet Explorer 3.0 (beta)	terrible	only the basics (less than 2.0)	at the very beginning (slower)	300k	no	2.1-4.1	yes	yes
Internet Explorer 3.01	terrible	only the basics (less than 2.0)	at the very beginning (slower)	300k	no	3.1-4.1	yes	yes

    From the above it is clear that Netscape 3.0 stands out; it is a RAM-hog, but it will handle any file in this site. Of the others, Netscape 2.0 is perhaps the best bet. It requires no more RAM than Internet Explorer and it loads (large files) two to three times faster than the latter. Its one drawback (based on my experience only) is that it slows down a little after its loaded about 350k and really struggles to load a 450k file; above that an "out of memory" message looms on the horizon. Common to both versions of Netscape is an extreme sensitivity to image "noise", those little "flecks" that pepper poor quality images. There aren't that many of these to worry about, but you will come across them. As for Internet Explorer, version 2.0 can load larger files than Netscape 2.0, with 550k appearing to be the Explorer's upper limit, but it is really slow going. The beta version of 3.0, as well as the non-beta 3.01 release, on the other hand, are defintely inferior to 2.0 in every respect that counts in terms of this Website. All of these versions of Explorer, however, do handle those poor quality images as if they were flawless gems! Big deal.

    Those using the smaller capacity browser will not be able to download the larger texts as a single file, but all texts in excess of 500k have also been divided into two parts, each of which is small enough for any of the above browsers to handle individually. The index of titles for each library includes the file size of each text, and all files exceeding 500k, when "clicked," will bring up a message informing you that you can load the single large file or either of the two smaller files.