{"id":20,"date":"2005-02-22T11:55:55","date_gmt":"2005-02-22T16:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/?p=20"},"modified":"2017-02-23T10:04:46","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T15:04:46","slug":"javascript-how-important-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/2005\/javascript-how-important-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"JavaScript: how important is it to web design?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Short answer: <\/strong><\/p>\n

JavaScript is not very important when you look at it from a practical perspective.<\/p>\n

OK, why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Simple really- about 10% of the people on the Internet have their JavaScript turned off – they’re afraid that it might pose some security risk. <\/p>\n

Even though that fear is unjustified, the fact remains that you can’t depend on JavaScript working for a significant audience. That means you can’t use JavaScript for any critical work on a public website.<\/p>\n

– –<\/p>\n

I use JavaScript mainly for HTML form validations (ex: check if the email address entered, is probably<\/em> an email address etc.) <\/p>\n

But again, if you want to make sure<\/strong> that the form is being filled in properly, (because JavaScript can be defeated,) you will still have to use a server-side script (something like PHP or ASP etc,) to be sure…<\/p>\n

When can you use JavaScript with confidence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best case scenario is when you have total control over which browser people use – this is rare indeed. <\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used JavaScript to create some interesting pieces of software. <\/p>\n

For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I created an HTA (Hyper Text Application) where I used DOM scripting to create a PowerPoint slide picker application. <\/p>\n

Using just JavaScript, I was able to create a rich user experience where people could search for and select ‘slides’ from a database, and then with just a click of a button, the program produced a ready to go PowerPoint presentation (using Windows’ COM automation*) right on their desktop.<\/p>\n

This program was run on a CD and was for internal use at a very large corporation – I had total control over the running environment, so I was able to really put JavaScript to the test.<\/p>\n

The point:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before any of you JavaScript nerds send me nasty emails …<\/p>\n

I’m not just discounting JavaScript out of hand, or without having considerable experience. Rather, I know from experience that web designers would be much better off learning other things … say PHP.<\/p>\n

*Microsoft provides a COM interface that even JavaScript can hook into. <\/em><\/p>\n

Stefan Mischook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short answer: JavaScript is not very important when you look at it from a practical perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.killersites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}