[thelist] javascript question

Tom Dell'Aringa pixelmech at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 26 08:42:58 CDT 2003


--- Jeff Howden <jeff at jeffhowden.com> wrote:
> technically, you broke it, the client only requested that you do
> so.

Fine, be semantic. Generally I do what my clients request ;). Doesn't
mean I don't offer up alternatives of course, but in the end they
generally call the shots. 

> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> > It's for an application installed on IE6 only laptops in
> > the field, with JS enabled.
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

> what about the poor sod in the field that's expecting the enter key
> to submit the form when he's ready?

What do you know about this form or the page I am referring to? Don't
you think your judgment is a bit premature without knowing the facts
at hand?

There are multiple forms and floating iframes on this particular
page. A press of the enter key will submit the wrong form 50% of the
time. Is this good architecture? NO, it isn't. Is it MY architecture?
NO! It isn't!

> what about the user that wants to enter a carriage return in a
> textarea? your code kills that ability.

Why are you assuming there are textareas? That would be a wrong
assumption in this case 95% of the time. The one time there is a
textarea, there are again two forms being dealt with. Allowing to
submit with an enter key there causes problems.

> what about the keyboard navigator that wants to click the enter key
> to navigate to the document linked to from the focused link?  your
> code kills that ability too.

Yes, it does. That person is out of luck.

> well, i suppose prostitutes feel that way after awhile too. ;)

So here's the deal. I support basically everything jeff says in the
above statements. I agree with him. When clients come to me with this
type of request, I bring these things up. But the client pretty much
always makes the decision.

In the real world, as a consultant, I do what I am asked to do.
Particularly in a depressed economy, in a depressed field. This
client did quite a bit more than just disable the enter key that I
disagreed with, believe me. 

This was one of those typical rush jobs where I was brought in at the
last minute to build something that was not designed right nor was
enough time alotted to build it. Pretty typical in the consulting
world in my experience. The pay was above average and the contacts I
made were important. Guess what, I'm not going to refuse to do the
work because of my views on what is "right" and what is "wrong" page
behavior. I don't know jeff is exactly suggesting that either by the
way.

The reality is in the end, the client will reap what they sow, plain
and simple. The users will be less than enamoured with the
application than they could have been.

And lastly, someone on this list asked for help and I was able to do
so. It's up to THAT person to make the decision on how acceptable it
is in HIS PARTICULAR case. 

We need to be careful about making snap judgments on code when we
don't have all the information, even if things don't seem so rosy on
the surface. 

So good thing to bring up the point that it breaks certain things for
the user. But we should stop short of pointing fingers. :) Probably
when I submitted my code snippet, I should have mentioned the things
that jeff did - and next time I will.

Tom




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