[thelist] TravelTex.com and JavaScript

BT Bigpant bigpant at btinternet.com
Wed Mar 13 15:28:01 CST 2002


> Go to http://www.TravelTex.com
>
> It appears that EVERY link has been implemented with JavaScript.
>
> Two questions:
>
> (1) Why?
>
> (2) Wwhat are the implications regarding "accessibility" for such an
> implementation?

I agree with Chris. From a brief glance, not only does it look hellish to
maintain, but for what it did, I feel a 42K html page (not including
graphics) is a little excessive. Sure, it looks nice, but I think simple is
best, don't complicate things any more than they need be. On top of their
30K+ of javascript on that one page, they also include 4 other separate js
files also, another 9K in total.
To answer your questions:
1. maybe to blind the client with science, and lock them into convaluted
proprietory code, or maybe it's designed to be used by a content management
system. Or perhaps they were just being 'clever'...
2. The more code you have, the more can go wrong, especially with so many
standards around. They seem to have code to do everything. Not only does
this pose x-browser problems, but will render their site totally useless on
non-javascript browsers. It may also impact on disabled users. I'm not up on
devices for the blind/partially sighted, but I'm sure standard HTML makes
better reading than a splurge of javascript.

Having said all that, it *does* work on my machine win98 ie5.5...

Phil Parker




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