[WEB4LIB] Adobe GoLive, javascript and HTML bloat?

[David Merchant]

>principle) and nothing about Adobe GoLive.  I'm wondering whether the
>bloat is the inevitable consequence of the features they want
>(mouseovers that trigger popup menus of sub-links) or could be avoided
>by tighter javascript code and/or giving up GoLive.  Anybody have any
>idea?

I agree with Jorge that the coding can be done much more tightly.

>By the way, if you want to see where the new design is headed, it's up
>for public comment at the location:
>
>        http://www.rice.edu/newhome/

Has the designers looked at that page with a 3.0 browser?  With Netscape
3.04 the result was horrendous, a very large page that scrolled down and
down and down: _all_ those popup menus of sub-links show up on the page as
individual side menu bars, one under the other.  WebTV also can't handle it
very well either.  The coding doesn't "degrade" very well for lower end
browsers.  I know we shouldn't design for the minority browsers first, but
they shouldn't be ignored either.  It can reflect poorly on y'all for one
thing.  Some sites it can be forgiven: artistic sites, for instance, where
coding for lynx means not seeing any of the visual art (an extreme example
to illustrate a point <grin>).  At least y'all do have a text only version.

I don't mind editors that help me code, but editors that do the coding for
me... they tend to give bloated coding, coding that is more convoluted than
need be, difficult to go in and correct or tweak if you wanted to do
something original or creative that was outside the editor's templates or
to make the page more cross-platform, or to switch to another editor in
case the one you are using is no longer upgraded/supported for new
development in HTML/JavaScript/etc, or in case you find another editor that
is better (editors that help you code and don't do the coding for you are
much more flexible to creativity, advances in HTML, etc).  The web is not
desk-top publishing, I think too many people want Web development to be
like using Word or Word Perfect to create desk-top documents.  The web is
not a TV, a phone, a paper, a desk-top document... it's a brand new medium,
and should be treated as such (IMHO).

TTFN,
David
Systems Librarian, Louisiana Tech University 
javascript list administrator <www.mountaindragon.com/javascript/>
HTML Live Examples webmaster <www.mountaindragon.com/html/>
Personal Page <www.mountaindragon.com/merchant/>