Bob McElwain

Do You Really Need All Those Scripts?

I often use Internet Explorer (Ver 6.0) on my main system,with Win XP. However, as a consultant I prefer using Netscape(Ver 4.78) to visit client or potential client sites. Sincemany no longer check to see how a page looks in Netscape, I canoften point out some changes to help Netscape users better enjoythe site.

As an aside, it's true that earlier versions of Netscape Ver6 would not run for many who tried them. However the currentversion, 6.2, is working for most now. To write as if Netscapeis a dead horse is a grand design error.

While not true even six months back, I am now routinelyrunning into pages that simply will not load in Netscape. Inthose cases I have been able to check, the culprit is a scriptof some kind that won't run with Netscape.

To include such a script on your site is pretty silly, toput it bluntly. It's easy enough to check to see what browseris in use. If you haven't tested the script on that version,don't run it. Or write your code in such a manner that afailure doesn't halt the download of the page.

There's another trend in scripts that has negativeimplications. More and more pages are using more and more ofthem. Collectively they can slow download speeds, even on highspeed connections. Each script must be processed by the hostserver. And this can slow things down during times of peakdemand on the server.

There is no point to using a script you can possibly dowithout. Certainly none you feel compelled to use can beallowed to crash a download. This amounts to throwing visitorsaway. Can you really afford to do so?

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