Re: HELP! What is the current web progamming fad?

From: Arthur J. O'Dwyer (ajo_at_nospam.andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: 05/06/04 

Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 16:27:17 -0400 (EDT)

On Thu, 6 May 2004, Barnstormer wrote:
>
> Just got handed a hot potato to get the school district web page up to
> state standards, as opposed to allowing the HS comp.science class to
> continue to whomp up weird stuff.

  Wow... I'd go ahead and let the students handle it, if they're doing
a reasonable job. Sounds like a great idea. Our high school's web
page was managed by "media specialists" (that's "school librarians,"
for those of you on the less obfuscated side of the pond), and it was
awful.

> Being heavy into C++ and Perl, I haven't done HTML in quite a while and
> never did do much other than publish a specific page now and then and I
> usually used Netscape the quick and dirty way.

  Ick! Actually, Composer isn't too bad for designing web pages, but
make sure to run the HTML through a beautifier before uploading it.
Bad HTML is not only ugly, it's wasteful of bandwidth.

> What is the current add-on that is preferred for the glitz items? i.e.,
> pull down menus and so forth.

  Animated GIFs. Animated GIFs and blink text. Lots and lots of blink
text. Don't forget the Flash animation on the opening page, or the
pop-up ads in the background, or the "Punch the Monkey" floater. It's
very important that your web page have all these things, or else nobody
will believe that you're really a school district.
  Ooh, and style sheets. And make up your own fonts. And frames, and
fixed-size browser windows. Make sure at least some of your pages are
1024 or 2048 pixels wide; that'll show those small-screen bozos what's
what!
  Look at this page for further examples of what you'll need.
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/
Black-on-yellow pulldowns are the wave of the future!
Don't forget to have every single page be Javascripted, and make
sure that every click opens a new window: why would so many people
use Microsoft Windows if they didn't want to see a bunch of windows
on their desktop?!

> From the look of the bookshelves at the local Booksamillion, PHP must be
> in demand - can't hardly find a title on anything else for the piles of
> PHP manuals. What else?
>
> Hints anybody?

  I'm a big proponent of nice sites with easy navigation. On the
other hand, there are probably administrators to please. So all I'm
going to say is: Look at what's already out there, and make something
similar. Try *not* to use any of the stuff I mentioned up there.
  Remember ALT text on all your images; if you can't figure out an
appropriate ALT text for an image, then it probably shouldn't be there.
Extensibility is good; little yellow "Under Construction" GIFs are
just plain annoying.

HTH,
-Arthur

Relevant Pages

  • Re: You missed the point.
    ... > With Windows you insert said CD and wait for the bouncing ball, ... You are right about it being a reason I got into Linux though :-) ... Maybe there should be a consumer box, maybe in a stylish all in one case ... The school district didn't give up, ...
    (alt.os.linux)
  • Re: HELP! What is the current web progamming fad?
    ... Animated GIFs and blink text. ... Don't forget the Flash animation on the opening page, ... > fixed-size browser windows. ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Win2k Outlook Express/Explorer problems
    ... Hello I am a network admin for a school district. ... "Change or Remove ProgramsAdd New ProgramsAdd/Remove Windows ... turning on classic folders remedies this problem. ... This seems like an Active Desktop or Active Server Pages issue but I ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)
  • Re: Animated GIFs in VB.NET form...
    ... Visual Studio install path that was called something like "Graphics" ... time I would like to throw up a small progress window showing the progress ... animated GIFs that occur when Windows does a file operation. ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.windowsforms)
  • Re: Anybody using a "real" Linux domain?
    ... > I assist the full time techie at a fairly small school district, ... > windows 200x servers. ... you also have to throw the license away. ... Windows retail version stays with the licensor. ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)