On Jul 20, 2004, at 7:35 AM, Peter Baker wrote:
Well, it adds value for most. Not for me, since I run Linux. Not for the large numbers of medievalists who run Mac OS X. I think it a really dreadful mistake to use MS's extensions to JavaScript, forcing people to use The Worst Browser Now Available.
this is exactly the kind of problem we were going around about a few weeks ago. pegging your applications and content to proprietary technology leaves you exposed when that technology turns out to be so problematic that people are starting to abandon it, as is the case now with IE and its security issues.
on the other hand, if you're building according to standards, when one browser turns out to be so problematic that people abandon it, they can still use your app on their new standards-compliant browser. and you don't force people who use a different OS to use two or more different computers. of course, if you have a captive audience, you can force people to do a lot of things.
interestingly, it looks like it's just possible that Apple is cooperating with Mozilla and Opera in developing a standards-compliant version of something like ActiveX. The following, posted this morning to an information architects mailing list, may be of interest to this group:
http://homepage.mac.com/jhobbs/essays/
in any case, the idea is a good one, imo.
j
jeffrey fisher ass't professor religious studies and philosophy bethany college, wv