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From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
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Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 22:33:37 -0500
To: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com>
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: ARRGH Netscape stinks!
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Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> types:
> > Shannon <shannon@widomaker.com> types:
> > > CERT is very correct in recommend these be disabled. Unfortunately there
> > > are some sites I use often that require it. It would be nice if you
> > > could turn scripting off for all but specific sites.
> Really, this isn't a Netscape problem so much as it is a problem
> with the dorks who coded the webpage. HTML has the <NOSCRIPT> tag
> to allow content for browsers that don't understand JavaScript.

It's really two different problems. One is dorks who write web pages
that assume some specific browser feature is available.  The other is
that you want to trust some sites, but not others. Yes, well-written
sites will work whether you have them enabled or not. But there are
some sites you are willing to trust and want the extra functionality
for. Mozilla manages to provide this facility for cookies, so asking
for it for JavaScript isn't completely ludicruous.

> The fact that most website designers don't care isn't Netscape's
> fault.

They certainly contributed to the problem. They failed to provide
documentation for their HTML extensions suitable for use by
implementors, and their instructions to authors regularly recommended
those extensions without bothering to note that they only worked in
Netscape, or providing instructions on how to write HTML that worked
with things turned off. Given that the first time they put JavaScript
on the page, it broke in their own browser if you had JavaScript
turned off, it's possible they couldn't have provided that information
in the first place.

Now that they've lost the war for market share, they seem to be better
behaved about such things, but I haven't looked closely.

> Personally, I always send a complaint to the webmaster of a site
> if it doesn't display usefully when I have plugins missing/options
> disabled. I figured if everyone who was annoyed by this complained,
> things would change a bit.

Maybe things are better now, but I quit complaining about bogus HTML
a couple of years ago. I got tired of hearing "It works in Netscape,
and we don't care about anything else" as an answer.

	<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.

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