[thelist] RE: Site critique, please?

[Charles Johnson]

"Joshua OIson" <joshua at alphashop.net> wrote:

> I really like the colors and layout.  In NN 4.7x it adds some space around
> the navigation on the left, but it still looks good.  The funny thing is
> that IE seems to drag on the rollovers on the left nav.  I watch my modem
> and I think I see the lights flickering every time I rollover a link, so I
> wonder if they're not being cached for some reason.
> 
> I noticed that you are using the MM_ code, which searches the document tree
> for most every swap.  For IE, you might consider adding an id attribute to
> the image tags and then using the ie document model to do the image swaps
> instead.  Using the DOM tends to be faster for IE.  Just add a switch to
> handle NS the way that you currently are and use the faster DOM method for
> ie 4.0+.

I notice that extra space on the navigation images in Netscape 4.x too, and
I'm puzzled by it. There is definitely no extra junk in those table cells,
no &nbsp or shims. I even set their heights explicitly to match the images
and still see the 1-pixel gap. One thing that's interesting: the gap doesn't
appear on the "You are here" images -- the ones that turn green when you're
on that page. And the only thing different about those images is that
they're not linked, and have no javascript code attached.

Another mystery, for now. At least it doesn't wreck the look completely.
Most people haven't even noticed it; I think you're the first to point it
out. (What does he win, Don Pardo?)

I don't see any flickering on my modem when rolling over the nav buttons;
those images are pre-loaded with an onLoad handler in the BODY tag, which
has always worked for me before. Do you have your cache set to zero, by any
chance?

I like your idea of swapping the images with the DOM; but one of the reasons
I'm still using the MM_ code is because it works with everything without the
need for a sniffer. Not that I hate browser sniffers or anything, but to do
them really right can involve a lot of code, and they always feel vaguely
kludgy to me, so I tend to use them only as a last resort.

Charles F. Johnson
Little Green Footballs Web Design
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com