Exit tutorial
 Web Design - Good and Bad Practice | |
| Part Eleven | |
| Java and Javascript
Note: The following comments apply to Java, Javascript, Jscript, VBScript, ActiveX, Babbage, and any similar technology. A lot of people are learning how to program in Java and JavaScript. Most of their early efforts seem to be some form of nonstop, repetitive animation that is both annoying and distracting. Some applets keep the page from loading or scrolling properly. One popular applet overwrites the browser's status display at the bottom of the window, keeping you from viewing the destinations of the links as you move the cursor over them. It also keeps you from seeing the status of the current page as it is loading. Another popular use for Java is to open a smaller secondary window above the browser. This may prove to be disorienting if your visitors are not ready for it. If you are developing Java applets, you may wish to wait until you have something more worthwhile before inflicting your early efforts on unsuspecting visitors. If you make your site so that it can only be viewed with Java or Javascript enabled browsers, you're making a big mistake. An even bigger mistake is to make two versions of your site -- one for Java, and one without. What will the visitor whose browser does not support Java see at your site? Perhaps an interesting message that the site requires Java. What about the visitor with a Java-capable browser, but with Java disabled? Perhaps a dialog box with an interesting error message. Some other considerations. Only a fraction of your visitors will have Java-capable browsers. You can test for which browser they're using (and maintain several versions of your site), but some will be using Java-capable browsers with Java turned off due to security concerns. In this case, they may get an interesting error message from the browser's Javascript interpreter. When your pages are indexed by search engines, they also take an excerpt from the beginning of the page. If the first thing on your page is a lump of Javascript code, then this is what the search engine will show as the description of your page. Perhaps not what you had in mind. If, however, you are designing a web-based application to be used on a private Intranet, you may have a valid reason for using one of these new technologies. Should You Use The Latest Features? Each new browser has new HTML tags that it supports. Some are upgrades to the latest HTML standard. Some are proprietary tags for features supported only by this particular browser. For some, the allure of a new technical challenge is too much to resist. So, instantly the web starts to blossom with pages that use these new features. Before you start cranking out your new pages, here are some things to consider: 1. Do you absolutely, positively need
this new feature for your site, or are you just using it
to show off? | |