Javascript


Almost everything I'm gonna write here is self-evident, but take a
look anyways. If you really think you know all this, scroll down
a bit to "What can you do?"


Nowadays, people actually have been known to deliberately turn off
javascript. Deliberately. Because of the wonders of modern pop-up ads,
pop-under ads, and other similarly intrusive crap.

Also, most "professional web developers" simply don't understand
Javascript well enough to be using it. If you're detecting a browser
at any point in the process, one day your web pages /will/ bite the
dust. That's if they're not doing it already.

What happens when I load the site in Opera? See how your script is stupid
enough to give me an error with the default, but then happily run and
crash when I set my browser to claim it's IE?

Let me repeat: If you have javascript on your site, and it detects the
browser, you're doing it wrong.


What can you do?

Mouseovers are a Good Thing (TM) when used properly. If you code them
properly, they'll work in ALL browsers with javascript enabled.

Bit of pimping myself here: http://icculus.org/~chunky/

Look at the cow. Move the mouse over it. Move the mouse off it. Read
the source.

It preloads the image, and it works. It also uses the bare minimum of
code, so is fast to download. That code is pretty much in the public
domain. Take copies, use it. See any browser detection code? Neither do I.

Now, something that I've done that is somewhat less obvious there:
The gallery itself is all mouseovers with some pictures. Without the
mouseovers, it's not really worth looking.

So I use javascript to print out things like the link to it. If there's
no javascript, there's no link. If you're not using an image-allowed
browser, then it simply doesn't print anything, so you can't click on it.

It uses javascript to print the text referencing it.

Try looking at my webpage with Javascript disabled. The difference is
negligible, but it's clearly there.


You do not need the onClose tag.