Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Christopher:

My work with html is with sites that are so simple that even
javascript is limited to button effects, as a result I had never even
heard of AJAX before this message. Apparently none of the sites I have
visited use AJAX, as I have never run into this problem before. My
main work is in design principles, readability, layout.

(An aside, I have taken to heart the admonition that if it is
possible, aim for the lowest common denominator in your web design. If
a significant portion of my expected audience has difficulty accessing
a certain feature, don't use it. Avoid all bleeding edge effects. Even
Flash should be limited to non-essential aspects of web pages, as not
all browsers support it, and/or many users turn it off to avoid
annoyance ads.)

On 12/16/06, Christopher V. Kimball <transcriber AT tanach.us> wrote:
> Dear Karl,
>
> Thanks for your observations about the Unicode/XML Westminster Leningrad
> Codex site at
>
> http://www.tanach.us/Tanach.xml .
>
> The site is based on a modern and standards-compliant approach,
> Javascript initiated XSL transformations to convert XML data into HTML
> displays. The new server-side processing is an example of the AJAX
> (Asychronous Javascript XML) approach that is common in commercial
> sites.  There's nothing "weird" in the HTML coding that I'm aware of.
> With the free, nearly-universal, standards-compliant browser, Firefox,
> the site operates correctly on Windows, Linux, and Mac systems.
> ...
> "Are you using complexity beyond what you need, and that is what is causing the 
> problems?" is always a valid question.  Suggestions of alternative approaches 
> having at least the same capabilites would be appreciated.
>
>
> Chris Kimball
> Redding, CT
On a previous iteration on your site, when I was able to bypass the
XML coding, the data rendered well in Safari using the system fonts,
as well as some other browsers. But then I also saw all your embedded
html tags. I haven't figured out how to bypass the AJAX coding on your
present site. But downloading the data files and opening in TextEdit
shows me the data encoding.

I wonder if relatively simple javascript app.s could do the same
effects that you are looking for, without depending on bleeding edge
app.s not supported by many modern browsers. Or maybe even simpler
html coding with javascript renderer could do the task. I would have
to ask people more knowledgeable than I to check out those
possibilities. Or maybe there are other people on this list who could
figure that out.

Karl W. Randolph.