From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2003 - 00:43:03 MDT
> One has to whack the web site designers & developers in the
> side of the head and say -- "Hey, do you know that Javascript
> not only crashes browsers because it is not a "standard" language,
> slows page download times (due to the increased size of pages that
> involve Javascript), allows annoying pop-up windows that will not
> go away, and increases consumption of CPU time that I would rather
> dedicate to more productive distributed computing purposes?"
There are reasons that people use Javascript, though...
1 - You can make a website look a lot better, and behave better (for ie5.5+
users at least) using lots of javascript. This may not jibe with yourself,
but most of the users out there want something aesthetic and user friendly;
straight html is often not so.
2 - Many web sites these days are web apps. When we wander into app
territory, the site tends to be judged against tradional windows software.
Users want instand validation of data entry, they want windows-like dynamic
control behavior, they want complex controls like trees and pretty lists.
These things are not catered for by html; they require client side
processing (ie: Javascript).
3 - Browser based apps are big in enterprise computing, slowly replacing the
traditional client-server app. Inside an intranet, you can control the
browser used and the browser settings, and you can trust intranet sites in a
way that you can't trust internet sites. You also tend to have a nice
responsive LAN. So, the desire for glossy, MS only feature exploitation very
much outweighs concerns of security, portability, universal standards, and
efficiency. Why does this affect the outside world? Because a lot of (most?)
web style development is taking place in such an environment. People learn
habits here which bleed out into internet development, because the same
people get jobs in both environments.
4 - MS only sites/apps/javascript turns up a lot due to commercial
imperative. IE just has such a large marketshare (especially amongst the
mainstream) that the extra effort required to make code behave properly (ie:
also work with netscape and opera) is in no way worth the expense (which can
be huge). I think it is becoming increasingly common to see web development
environments where there isn't even a netscape machine to test the final
product on, let alone any thought about it in development.
5 - Any client side processing that you can do makes sense, if it doesn't
overcomplicate things (= more difficult dev = higher maintenance costs),
because you take load off your servers. People have big fat PCs, doing
bugger all (if not navel gazing, they are looking for ET or something
equally non-contributory to business-Xs bottom line). Servers cost lotsa
moola.
There are probably a bunch more reasons to be using Javascript. What I would
say is...
1 - Client side processing has it's place. Some of the reasons above are
nasty, evil realities that should be abolished but wont be. Others are
entirely legitimate. Some are in between somewhere.
2 - You shouldn't lament the use of client side processing. You should
lament the lack of standards for it (which cause the problems), and the
ramifications of a virtual MS monopoly wrt browsers.
3 - Get a newer version of netscape, pleeeeeease. Version 4.0 blows goats.
Emlyn
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