html on Fedora -- looking for "where to go"

[Tim]

On Mon, 2011-08-08 at 19:01 -0400, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> The browsers are probably exposing some OS specific resources to
> Javascript.  When the Javascript can't find something OS specific that
> it's looking for, it dies.

Hence why relying on it is nearly always a bad idea.  Sure, there's some
very basic commands that are probably going to work on most browsers.
But there's plenty of things that are only going to work on some
browsers, and they'll probably be the ones that that the author will try
to use (because that's how *luck* works).

Having said what I said earlier, about not knowing of any JavaScript
validators.  I noticed some listed when Google searching for them,
afterwards.  But I know nothing about whether they're reliable, in
themselves.  And it's certainly not going to help when it comes to
issuing commands that can only work in some browsers.

The HTML war was fought long ago, and eventually came through with more
people willing to adhere to specifications.  Though it's taken a hell of
a lot of convincing.  And the WWW is more compatible with most things
now, than it was.

The JavaScript bitch fight has continued as scrum.  Yes, some standards
were written long ago.  But JavaScript was a proprietary baby.  The
non-proprietary ECMA script /standard/ is barely mentioned (and lack of
proper validators hasn't helped).  And browser writers have always
shovelled in there own special tricks, even more so with scripting than
they did with flat HTML.  Not to mention expansion of features with
plug-ins (which some page authors just don't get that all plug-ins are
not available for all browsers, nor can some people install them, even
if available).

You need to learn about different types of browsers.  For instance,
you're not too likely to be able to pop up other windows on a browser
running in a mobile phone.  So coding up a convoluted site limits how it
can be used by the public, perhaps making it completely unusable.

For anybody dabbling with scripting, I'd advise trying to find out about
compatibilities (what's common, what's browser specific).  And it'll be
almost unavoidable that you'll be doing lots of conditional scripting
for different browsers, because you'll probably want some of those
browser specific functions, having to work out two or three different
ways to do what you wanted to do.

You also lose out with search engines, if you depend on scripting to get
through your site.  Most people find out about a site through a search
engine, it's not good to exclude yourself from that working.

I gave up attempting to work through the scripting nightmare / browser
war, long ago.  My websites have no scripting.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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