[WEB4LIB] RE: Question concerning backward navigation

[Middletown Thrall Library Webmaster]

Thomas Dowling wrote:
> I know I harp on this, but it troubles me that page authors are so willing
> to put up pages that have no provision for users who disable Javascript.

Personally and professionally, I do *not* advocate  Javascript
URLs.  Speaking for my post alone, it  was a response to a
question sent to the list, that's all.

> If someone makes a conscious decision to disable Javascript, or any
> other feature of their browser, it isn't for us to question that decision
> or nag them into reversing it.  It's our job to support it.

On the other side of the matter, anyone disabling Javascript
or Java, especially in a public library, is not serving patrons
but rather limiting what sites they can access.  Case in point,
the latest WebPACs use Java.  These things must be enabled
if patrons are to be afforded the widest array of access, as
they should.

Java and Javascript are realities of the web, just like
PERL/CGI, and every attempt,  coding-wise and access-wise,
should be made so that patrons  without  Java/Javascript at
home can access information yet patrons  in the library can
access Java/Javascript-enhanced  pages.  The same reasoning
should apply to sites employing  graphics versus text, or text
versus other formats, such as DOC or PDF.  Alternative
access  is key if everyone is going to access your data.

All webmasters should regularly consult Bobby
(http://www.cast.org/bobby/) for ADA compliance and
W3C (http://www.w3.org) to ensure their pages meet  all
critical standards of page rendering and access.  For more
on Javascript, Java and PERL refer to:

    http://devedge.netscape.com (Java/Javascript technologies)
    http://www.javasoft.com (Java Sunsite home page)
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting  (MS JScript, VBScript)
    http://www.perl.com (PERL scripts)

Again, this is not necessarily to advocate any one of these
technologies, but every webmaster should have some
awareness of these things, if only for reference purposes.

Other potentially useful sites are

    The Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer:
    http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html

and

    Lynx-me
    http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~gerald/lynx-me.cgi

I have Lynx installed on my computers, and I regularly
review my web pages before posting them.  The extra
time is worth it, believe me.  Lynx is downloadable from

    http://lynx.browser.org
    http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm

I highly recommend this for anyone wishing to make
their web pages as "backwardly compatible" as possible.


Robert

rjtiess at warwick.net
http://members.tripod.com/~rtiess