Re: Warning! New Kate Page!

[Chris Williams <chrisw@miso.wwa.com>]

Stev0 the Frame-Hater writes:
>I just found a new Kate page (thanks, Yahoo!):
>
>http://www.ifi.uio.no/~jonl/kbindex.html
>
>Review:  It has frames, therefore it sucks.  Nothing
>more need be said.
>
>Grade: F-

   Actually, some clarifications are in order. Frames in and of themselves
are not bad. But the way they are used on this page is a textbook example
of how to use frames badly. Here they are:

  Frames serve no purpose. On this site, there are four frame areas. One
appeared blank, one holds the requisite reverse lookup hack (like I need 
to know the port I'm dialed into) and counter, one holds the actual 
*content* of the page, and the last has a "return me to home" link. (Return
home buttons are a good thing, but this one serves no purpose - you won't
ever *see* it unless you enter through the home page.)

   The <NOFRAMES> area contains an admonishment to go get Netscape, instead
of the text of the only page that contains any actual information.

   No choice is offered to people using Netscape 2.0 or better who simply
do not *wish* to view the world through frame colored glasses. As the 
pointless frames at the top and bottom eat a fixed 175 vertical lines 
(plus another 10 lines for the frame elements themselves) a person unlucky
enough to visit this site using a 640 x 480 laptop will be lucky to to
see an actual 200+ vertical lines.

   The "target" is not set for the external links, so they appear in this
tiny window left over - a major pain *especially* if the linked site is
*also* frames based. For an interesting look at this, hit the link to 
Vickie's list of Kate pages. jonl's is #21. Select it and watch the 
fun! Use target="_top" if you are going to insist on using frames.

   The intended "slideshow.html" did not work on my system. Checking closer
it was because it is a Java applet, and I have Java disabled on my system.
I got tired of poorly written Java crashing my browser. If you *need* to
have an animated series of images, please consider using animated GIFs. They
are part of the GIF 89a spec, and they degrade properly on other browsers.

  There are other problems with the HTML, but that can wait.

   This may sound like nepotisim, but a good example of frames being used
properly, to add actual value to a page is Vickie's Happy Rhodes FAQ at:

http://miso.wwa.com/%7Evickie/happy/faq.html

   I don't mention this because I love her, I mention this because she is
a very good HTML writer *and* I spent a few evenings making sure that it
worked right. This page give a choice of using frames or not, even if you
are using a frames browser. I have some problems with the color choices
(I'm a dark on light only man myself) but otherwise a good example.