Although that is ONE (quite obnoxious) use of JavaScript, there
are some very beneficial uses as well.  A few of the more pleasing
ones would be:

.  Allowing the page to dynamically change an item when the cursor
   is placed over it (this is called "mouse over", and can be seen
   on the sambaix.com site when you move your cursor over one of
   the menu options.  It simply changes from a red to a green
   color for a little visual highlighting.  Other uses would be
   to show additional item information like at the interex.org
   site where when you place the cursor over one of the menu
   items on the main page, it shows you the information that is
   contained therein).

.  Pre-filling in fields based upon your selections in prior fields
   without having to submit the form.  This (in many cases) speeds
   up the process of completing a form.  For example, if your in
   a form where one field asks for an item, after you fill in that
   information, the page can "load up" valid selections for a
   subsequent dependent field with only the values applicable to the
   chosen item without any additional action being taken by the user.
   Although the same thing can be performed by having the user 'submit'
   the form, the pre-filling is in many cases quicker and less confusing
   for the end user.

.  Field validation checks can be performed at the client side to make
   sure the data entered is valid.  This saves both processing time on
   the server, and speeds the overall process as you are not forcing the
   user to submit the form - receive the errors - resubmit the form - etc
   until the data is valid.  Of course this doesn't relieve all server
   side validation, but you can think of it as being similar to using
   field processing in V/Plus.

  I don't use a lot of JavaScript in the web pages I build as I try to
make them look and act the same across multiple types of clients (who
may be using a browser that does not handle JavaScript), but there are
occasions where it is very useful.  I can see where I will be using it
(or something like it) more and more in the future, especially when
doing work for companies that have standardized on a particular browser.
In that case, I don't have to code the same function multiple ways to
get around the differences each browser may have (this applies to
standard HTML as well as JavaScript though).
  As far as your example goes, the same annoying thing can be accomplished
without using JavaScript at all.  Just set the target of the action to
a differently named window, and a new instance of your browser will be
started for that page.  You can also use a META-REFRESH tag with a different
target to automatically send your current browser to a different page after
pausing a set number of seconds (or not at all).  This seems to work for
most browsers, but I'm sure not for all.

Regards,
Michael L Gueterman
Easy Does It Technologies
SIGWeb Co-Chair
--

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Tom
> Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2000 9:17 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] JavaScript risks (was: Wordperfect)
>
>
> I think Javascript is used by the really obnoxious web pages that act
> all innocent until you go to them - and then you are
> forwarded to a bad
> web site. Try to close that window and a new window with the same bad
> web page pops up. Repeat ad-nauseum. The only way to stop the cycle is
> Ctrl-Alt-Del and kill the browser itself.
>
<snip>