OFF-TOPIC: Re: Stability of the Website

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions.

The top of the main page should look like this (warning, big file):

http://www.pipingdesign.com/images/screenshot.GIF

if you can't view it.

See more comments/replies below.

Paul

• Original Message ----- From: "varun pant"

> laboriously: with the scripting by Thomas Brattli with
modifications by
> DCage . With due respect to their efforts, they have overlooked
the very
> simple rule- which incidentally is true even for Process or
Piping design-
> try to keep the design as simple as possible.

True. There's always a trade-off between simple/universally-viewable and cosmetics. The "real" way to do it (site design) is to detect the visitor's browser version and serve up a specific page created for that browser/OS/screen resolution. The best way I know how to do this is via a database, not individual pages. It's a fairly advanced solution, I'm not ready for it just yet.

> I know that they have tried their hands on scripting (and man,
they have
> written pages and pages of script!) and a lot of effort has gone
into it-
> But they have also used certain tags and scripting that is not
supported by
> the older browsers-

Most of the DHTML scripts at the site were originally written to be backwards-compatible, but...

> The site is working perfectly fine on my browser (IE 5.5+ and
the OS is
> Advanced Server Windows 2000), so I should not be complaining-
but you can
> put a notice on the site like " This site is best viewed
with...." - With a
> link to download the browser. (I did note the link to download
the IE 5.5
> browser, but can that be more straightforward?).

Given that the site is designed for that browser, I suppose I should do that (note to self). I don't want to come across as trying to force a choice on visitors though. Not much chance anyone is going to install new software just to look at one site, anyway.

> Thus, you should be considering the following basics- Who will
be reading
> the web pages, how they see and understand information, what
types of
> computers they use, what browser software they have and how fast
their
> connections are (uhm.. did I say something about the background
image?

This is why I added the new poll questions to the main page (although I forgot the net connection speed - another note to self). The most recent server stats (WebTrends) show that something like 80% of all visitors are using IE5. Yes, I know the background image is a download-killer. I have to get a JPG compression program and drop it down a few KBs.

> Thanks for keeping the images to the minimum, as I have a very
poor Internet
> connectivity!). The structural design should be intuitive and
that harnesses
> the natural associations your audience members are likely to
make.
> Personally, I would recommend that XML is used and the data is
then
> transformed into html using XSL, but the question is, is it
really
> justified

These latest site revisions are interim, before database/XML/XHTML. Received on Tue Aug 21 10:00:00 2001