[Ldsoss] New Gospel Library beta

[Paul Johnson]

[ Fixed top posting, fixed bad wrapping, replaced attributions, trimmed
  the post, replaced the subject, left the threading broken.  Come on
  folks, this is a technical list, right? ]

[ Oh, and no meta discussion, please ;-) ]

On Mon, Dec 04, 2006 at 10:42:30AM -0800, David Fagerstrom wrote:

> --- Frank Reid <freid00 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Andrew McNabb <amcnabb at mcnabbs.org> wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, Nov 20, 2006 at 05:45:39PM -0700, Frank Reid wrote:
> > >
> > > > I took a look at the beta version of the Gospel Library and
> > > > liked what I saw.  The slide out choices are great!

> > > Are you kidding?  You like that?

> > > I wish more web designers would focus on usability instead of
> > > cuteness.
> >
> > It's not a matter of cuteness.

> > This is how all Windows programs work

> I don't want to start a flame-war here, but I have to side with Andrew
> on this one.  These menus may be wicked cool on a high- speed
> connection, but on dial-up they just make an already slow and
> frustrating experience even more aggrevating.
>
> I don't have a problem with them providing the menus, as long as they
> still provide a way to access the library the old way for us dial-up
> cheapstakes.  You know, the way some sites provide a frames and
> no-frames entrance.  Not everyone will have high-speed internet,
> especially in developing countries that may just now be joining the
> information superhighway.

I agree with these points in general.  Sites that require JavaScript in
order to access functionality are a pain.  In fact, anything which
doesn't degrade gracefully is a pain.

However, I have come to a completely different conclusion.  I generally
use Firefox with JavaScript turned off (running the NoScript plugin) and
I have found the beta site to be quite usable in this configuration.  In
fact, I didn't even know these menus existed until I read this thread
and turned on JavaScript.

So, if you don't like the menus, turn off JavaScript.

In fact, the beta site seems perfectly serviceable in both links and
lynx, which is more than can be said for the current site.  It also
seems better than the old site in Firefox, where I was never quite sure
what was going to happen when clicking on menu items.

Of course, with JavaScript turned off, the vertical tabs (Back,
Show/Hide Navigation) and the print tab are useless.  Perhaps they
should be dynamically generated, but this is a minor issue.  So I see
the new site as a great step forward, in this respect at least.

-- 
Paul Johnson - paul at pjcj.net
http://www.pjcj.net