[geeks] A little self-indulgence

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Kenneth Dunn wrote:
> I have to (which is often). I've only toyed with CGI to see how it works. 

CGI's a pain in the arse, but it gets the job done reliably.  Ages ago, I
wrote a C library to do all the CGI-stuff for me.  I should really clean
it up and release it, since I bought the license to it from JJT.

> Javascript and Java I haven't found a need for.

I've found one relevant, completely justifiable use for Javascript in a
program that I wrote at my previous workplace.  I was coding an
application[1] for somewhat-unclued tech support people, and one of the
screens had two radio buttons and a text-entry field.  The text-entry
field was meaningful only if the first radio button was selected.

Using Javascript, I could disable (and even grey-out) the text-entry
field, depending on the status of the radio buttons.  The app worked fine
without JavaScript (since it was just icing), but it saved me from having
to answer the question of "why doesn't <foo> act like it sees setting
<bar>?" on workstations that had JS turned on.

But, yeah, 95% of the JavaScript out there is useless at best, and usually
an impediment for a useful web experience.

The same goes for Java.  I -love- Java applications, both as a developer
and a user.  It means that I (probably) won't have to worry about Java app
Foo running on my platform of choice, since it (finally) has a decent JVM.
Applets have a -lot- of potential, but so much of the mindshare is wasted
on dancing postage stamps and navigational "aids".

> What really pisses me off is idiot web masters that insist on putting
> Javascript and graphic labels without alt tags everywhere just to 
> "navigate" around the web site. I feel for those that are blind.

There's a rather vocal movement that the ADA (Americans with Disabilites
Act) apply to commercial web sites.  This would imply that all US sites be
screen-reader compatible.

> Frames! Now they piss me off big time. I know they can be real handy
> when not being abused, which is not all that often. 

No doubt.  Frames wouldn't piss me off nearly as much, if there were an
efficient way to bookmark within them.  Frames (and windows for that
matter) that cannot be resized are an abomination.

Most people who use frames are just lazy--they don't know that they can
get the same level of consistency by using SHTML or $ScriptingLanguage.

> Skipping the market droid bullshit, it is a fair product which is getting
> better all the time. It is prehaps the only use of web based Java that
> is justifible in my mind. 

VNC comes to mind, but, yeah, the candidates for applets that have
actually realized Java's potential to do something -useful- are few and
far-between.

--Jonathan
[1] Previous workplace believed that every single tool should run in a web
    browser, preferably without SSL, because[2] those nasty warnings about
    certificates confuse tech support. This included the tool that
    controlled the automated security software, and the tool
    that controller the distributed authentication framework.  Never mind
    that -touching- those tools (should have) implied enough clue to be
    able to ssh in and use the command-line.
[2] Not my argument.