Anchor tags are for wusses
-
MPS and Morbius, this is my first post so I quite expect a flaming. :)
With that out of the way, I've never had a reason to contribute to TDWTF until this past week, when I looked at the HTML code for a printing fulfillment web application. I won't go into the long sordid story that brought us to this place, which is mostly a lot of business-as-usual. The context of using this application is that we are allowed to give the vendor some "skinning" graphics and colors for their system, to make the transition from our website to theirs somewhat transparent to end users.
Along the way we have repeatedly emailed the vendor and had tense conference calls with them over such topics as:
1) The original templating document we received specified 65px wide for a given menu bar image. After sending it, and seeing it posted fuzzily on their demo for us, 4 emails later finally get a separate set of requirements that shrink this image by 4px - A remade image sent, 3 more emails and a conference call later, the old graphic, made to their original spec, remains, fuzzy and shrunk 4px through width= on the img tag.
2) We explained in two emails the colors we wanted for the left menu bar and top menu bar backgrounds. They don't understand what we're talking about. We send them a screenshot with arrows drawn on it giving the colors we want. They don't get it still. After 20 minutes of wrangling about it on the phone, our rep gets this "oh.... that" tone and we finally get what we want.
All this, fairly normal client-vendor communications in the web world, at least from my experience. They're slightly dumber than most, but not just stupid. Then we get to the crowning glory. Our designers have been complaining that the menu items "jump" when moused-over, and that they don't have the user-expected "hand" icon for a link. Multiple emails regarding this operation get the "jumpy-ness" down a bit, but still there. No luck on the hand mouse pointer - we all know how if it doesn't have a hand, your bog-standard IE6 user won't think its a link. Guess what our client's user base is.
So, I get fed up and look at the code myself (gee, glad I'm not some normal client and am actually a web developer). When I find this for the links, I actually give my first real involuntary out-loud WTF:
<td valign="top"
onmouseover="curClass=this.className; this.className='tdOn';"
onmouseout="this.className=curClass;" title="Select this product." onclick="gotoDetail(1);">
Product Name
</td>and again, for another link:
<div class=shortcutLink
onmouseover="curClass=this.className; this.className='shortcutLinkOn'; return parent.StatusBar('Fullfillment Products');"
onmouseout="this.className=curClass; return parent.StatusBar('');"
onclick="javascript:load_coll(1)"
title="">
Fullfillment Products
</div>Well, mystery solved - no wonder the browser has a hard time knowing its a link - its bloody not! Needless to say, the following emails and phone calls are unpleasant.
Me: "We still have the problem with the menu links. They break all kinds of web standards."
Vendor: "They work fine for us in IE7"
Me (spewing FUD, admittedly - its due): "Who knows if these non-links will even work on our client's browsers - as you know they are a large corporation with high security standards, and I'm afraid to put this in front of them."
Vendor: "We'll see what we can do to change them."Today, I check the site once more. There's the magic hand cursor! Have they really listened? Maybe they saw the error of their ways!
Here's the change to their code:
.shortcutLinkOn{ ...... cursor: pointer; ..... }
Yup. Because the problem is NOT stupid javascript onClick actions on various block elements instead of links, the REAL problem is that we said "the hand cursor doesn't show." Problem solved!
-
Those "links" (*shudder*) doesn't work with tabbed browsing (open in New Tab and like), and IIRC IE7 is first IE to include tabbed browsing.
-
TRWTF is that they do this to keep it all with the look and feel of their design, instead of matching the "a" design with their texty design. Seen it before, somewhere...
-
@stuckinmemphis said:
MPS and Morbius, this is my first post so I quite expect a flaming. :)
TRWTF is that it's now expected that MPS and Morbius will flame people.
-
Meh, it's not the best solution but it's hardly that big of a deal. What's more, it's not that novel of a problem, either. This site is full of examples of people poorly emulating features of HTML in JS. Part of that I attribute to HTML, CSS and JS being a messy platform of slopped-together ideas and part is just the normal stupidity that gives this site a reason for existing. That you consider yourself a web developer and haven't seen this exact same thing hundreds of times over is somewhat amusing.
-
@TheDude said:
TRWTF is that they do, or did so in the past.@stuckinmemphis said:
MPS and Morbius, this is my first post so I quite expect a flaming. :)
TRWTF is that it's now expected that MPS and Morbius will flame people.
-
Are they paid by the line or trying to stretch out development time? I don't understand the point of overcomplicating one of the most basic things you can do in HTML. It makes my head explode... Excuse me for a moment while I commit seppuku.
-
@galgorah said:
Are they paid by the line or trying to stretch out development time? I don't understand the point of overcomplicating one of the most basic things you can do in HTML. It makes my head explode... Excuse me for a moment while I commit seppuku.
What's with people committing seppuku at drop of a hat? If all the good developers would stop doing that maybe we'd see less of this.
-
-
@Cyrus said:
@galgorah said:
Are they paid by the line or trying to stretch out development time? I don't understand the point of overcomplicating one of the most basic things you can do in HTML. It makes my head explode... Excuse me for a moment while I commit seppuku.
What's with people committing seppuku at drop of a hat? If all the good developers would stop doing that maybe we'd see less of this.
It's about Honor. When a poor developer does something like this we as Developers must restore our honor.
-
@galgorah said:
It's about Honor. When a poor developer does something like this we as Developers must restore our honor.
We must make him commit seppuku.
-
@dhromed said:
@galgorah said:
Forget seppuku. We must stuff him feet first in a meat grinder, grind everything up to the gonads, then allow him to live to repair his past mistakes while being fed his former bottom self.It's about Honor. When a poor developer does something like this we as Developers must restore our honor.
We must make him commit seppuku.
