I agree - ignorance and "couldn't care less" are the commonest excuses for not creating professional standards based Websites.
On Sun, February 24, 2008 4:02 am, Breton Slivka wrote: > I don't really feel like participating in the dramatic part of this- > But I can answer some of the questions about javascript. > > On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:53 PM, dwain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> i'm more of a designer than a developer. my knowledge of javascript is >> limited. i am currently reading: javascript, the definitive guide by >> david >> flanagan. help me out here please, if i'm off base or need more >> information. >> >> i understand that javascript is a programming language. > > correct > >> i understand that javascript is needed to pass information from a form >> to a >> data base for storage or retrieval of data. > > Incorrect- Javascript is absolutely not needed for this. In fact, I > would actively discourage this usage, because it makes forms > inaccessable to clients without javascript. (Even though I do quite > like javascript most of the time) > >> i also understand there are more uses for javascript than my above >> remark, >> but, again, my limited understanding of javascript draws a blank for >> other >> uses. > > Javascript is basically a tool to allow website authors to add browser > features that are not built in to the browser. That's how I see it > anyway. That's not exactly how most people use it, or think of it. > >> i don't understand why someone would code a page and use javascript that >> would make the page not available without it. > > It's not strictly the usage of javascript that makes the page > inaccessable, it's the page's dependance on it. If you think of > javascript like I do- A tool for adding features- then the page still > needs to be able to work without those features. The reasons for > someone making a page that doesn't work without javascript are > complicated, but it basically boils down to how the author thinks > about what a webpage is, and how it works. > > I've spoken to the author for instance, of www.eventliving.com. That > website does not work at all without javascript- And there's really no > reason that it can't. The issue is that the guy who programmed it had > a background in Java application development- Not web development. He > seemed to think of a website as a specialized kind of program. He > didn't seem to know, for instance that the distinction between > clientside javascript, and serverside java code was important. The > goal was simply to get the website to work in IE, just like with any > other program, the goal might be to simply get it to work in windows. > There was no awareness of accessibility issues. > > But that's just one case. Someone might alternatively be perfectly > aware of accessibility issues, and there are other reasons for > depending on javascript. Accessibility, though in a sense is trivially > easy once you know it, is percieved by a lot of people as being quite > difficult. Application responsiveness might be a top priority, and the > author simply sees no reason to make the site work without javascript. > > >> would someone like to point me to some references on how to use >> javascript >> in a standards compliant way and have a go at the above question? > > hijax > > http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/schedule/paper/29 > >> >> dwain >> > > > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ******************************************************************* > > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************