[WEB4LIB] Re: HTML Question - target="new"

[Dobbs, Aaron]

Wow, shades of 1994-5 cropping up.
Only then it was: "Tell people this page optimzed for Netscape"
Competing technology and and competing "standards" are the problem.
We all had to jump through hoops to get our pages to "look right" on each
platform.
Designers, all of us at one point or another, forgot one basic thing:
relevant content matters more than "correct" display.
Ease of navigation is also important, but without content there are no
"eyeballs."
"In theory" current browsers are standards compliant (ouch, just hit the
floor laughing) but then you are left with "lowest common denominator" and
the page doesn't "look nice".  Write your scripts to run on the server, have
it output standard html so it looks to the browser like a static page and
accept that not everyone will see how pretty the page is.
Until the "standards" are in final version (in stone) and enforced
(diligently) its every browser for itself, every user for themself, and
ymmv.
This war has been fought, and no one won the first time.  Of course the web
survived, the ease of use transcends page formatting.
Unless you totally oppose the link you're linking you should not be popping
it into a new window, the current window is fine.  And if you totally oppose
it, why are you linking it? (If you're a library you probably ought to link
it anyway, if it has cultural, etc merit (see ALA Intellectual Freedom
statement), and leave it in the current window - the user will come back,
for as a library you have content)
-Aaron
:-)'
          cold boot  ::  computers
           caffeine  ::  humans

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Pecaut [mailto:pecautm at missouri.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 4:37 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: HTML Question - target="new"


On Wed, Mar 14, 2001 at 01:13:56PM -0800, Daniel Messer wrote:
> While I know there is a way to do this (I know for a fact that it can be
done 
> with Java) I would make one reccomendation. Forewarn people coming to your

> site that it's better to use IE to view it. I would do this if for no
other 

I strongly disagree with this.  Telling your users which browser 
to use is like saying 

`Welcome IE users!  Everyone Else Go Away!'

I can't use IE on my computer because I use Unix.  Sometimes I have
problems with a particular website (such as www.janus.com), and
I email the webmaster or whoever about it.  You know the attitude they 
have?  `Sorry, we don't support Unix'  This is interpreted to mean
`Use IE or Go Away', and is very insulting.

Design your site for the web, not for browsers.

> > I am using the <a href=> tag with the target="new" attribute to bring up
> > a new window for a link.  In Netscape Navigator, the new window is full
> > size; in Internet Explorer, it is sized down so you can see the first
> > window behind it.  Is there a way in HTML to control this window
> > sizing?  Specifically, I would like the new window to appear as it does
> > in IE, so that the first window is still visible.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance for your advice,
> > Maribeth

There is no way to control the size of the new window with HTML - 
you have to use JavaScript.

Sorry to sound so irritated, but the web is what it is because
of the great diversity of people connected, not because everyone 
uses IE.

-Mark