[thelist] Standards Compliant Webmail Application

[Justin Stach]

Chris Johnston <fuzzylizard at gmail.com> wrote

>> I barked something in
>> low-Saxon as soon as I saw the frameset...
>>
>
> What's wrong with the frameset? Last time I checked framesets were
> qualified as valid html. Also, I just checked SquirrelMail using the
> html validator on the web developer toolbar in firefox and it is valid
> html. So what's the problem? Or is this just a personal dislike of
> frames? Personally, I think they work well for an application like
> SquirrelMail

Hi Chris,

Yeah - it's a dislike of framesets - I think they're anachronistic and 
struggle to think of situations where they're preferable over other 
solutions (that's not a gauntlet, by the way). I don't like the way 
that they require duplication of effort (as <noframes> is a required 
element), I don't like the way that they mess with addressing and I 
don't like the fact that frames are a step in the wrong direction when 
it comes to separating content from presentation.

My (possibly over-the-top) reaction, was down to all of the above and 
because when I logged in to the application, its frameset (as I was 
presented it - I'm guessing the guy who installed it hasn't tweaked 
anything) does a great job of covering up a load of nested mail folders 
- yeah, some browsers will let you resize the frame, but it's just bad 
design in the first place. I haven't had a look under the bonnet yet, 
so have no idea what the underlying code will be like to tweak (hence 
the initial question), so maybe there's a way to sort it out and get 
rid of the frames.

Anyway, thanks for your and everybody else's time.

Justin