[CLUE-Tech] Is this true?

[Jed S. Baer]

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 20:15:13 -0600
Jeffery Cann <fabian at jefferycann.com> wrote:

> You can argue that folks should not use DHTML or JavaScript (ECMAScript)
> or any other user-friendly feature for web sites.  I disagree and
> luckily to this point in the life of the internet, really popular
> features tend to become standards -- e.g., JavaScript --> ECMAScript.

Regrettably, it is the authors who abuse scripting who ruin it for sites
which use it responsibly.

I'll turn on JavaScript when I have a browser which allows me to disable
(err, protect) the back button and the history button; disable "on-close"
events; disable loading/processing of rollovers (extra bandwidth for those
extra images); etc. I can't even remember all the javascript annoyances
I've encountered over the past few years. And, I haven't encountered any
use of javascript (when I've turned it on) that I couldn't think of a way
to handle with regular HTML. Well, OK, maybe 1. Form validation saves
bandwidth. That one usage isn't enough for me to put up with all the other
crap that javascript brings. And you know what, too many web developers
seem to be just obsessed with all the glitzy/flashy stuff, that they seem
to forget that there are people out here who like to be able to size/place
windows, and maybe just read web pages without having stuff flash at them.
I ran across a site recently that made heavy use of a secondary window for
content. It had some script thingy in it that resized and centered the
window at the end of each page load. So, when I'd move it to where it was
convenient for me, well (hey what do I know?) it'd move back to where it
was obscuring stuff I wanted to have visible. I've been to sites where the
drop-down menus would just spring up when I moused over them, on the way
to something else on the page - I wasn't going to click on what was in the
menu - and obscure what I wanted to use. Bottom line is, leave javscript
turned on, and you have no idea what sort of crap might happen to your
browser, and your web surfing. According to the junkbuster docs,
javascript can set cookies which junkbuster can't block. Goodbye privacy?

So, there's my little rant for the evening. Hope you enjoyed it as much as
I did! ;-)

jed
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 undergo the fatigue of supporting it." - Thomas Paine