[thelist] Client side JavaScript or Server side CGI?

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Zoe

A CGI (called via SSI or some such) will give you much, much greater
compatibility across all browsers and platforms if all you care about is
whether you're dealing with ie5/Mac, Opera/Win, NS6/Linux etc.

XSSI will also work, with less of a performance hit, if you're running on
Apache.

However, if you're needing to test for a specific JS capability, then
using JS would make sense.

Sure, a server-side solution will cost performance, but whether it's
significant will depend on your peak traffic compared to the meatiness
of the server and the well-writtenness of the script. Most really big sites
which take peak loads of thousands of users have a substantial amount
of server-side gubbins running - it's not necessarily A Bad Thing(tm).

Some high-load serverside application sites:
http://www.currys.co.uk/
http://slashdot.org/
http://www.webmonkey.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/

fwiw http://evolt.org/ should be able to take one hell of a load without
falling over.

Cheers
Martin






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Subject:  [thelist] Client side JavaScript or Server side CGI?



Hi Listees

For browser/platform detection for CSS do people consider it better to use a
client side JavaScript or a server side CGI script?

My thoughts are that Server side CGI might be better, putting the emphasis
on the server rather than the clients computer - but this would mean the
user accessing a CGI script from every page, which is probably not a good
idea (is it).

Any thoughts, or suggestions would be helpful.




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