December 24, 2001

I would have replied to your response to my flame, but I couldn't because of your bugs. In 800 by 600 I can barely squeak by on the Post Message page, but it's a no go in the Reply to Message page.

First of all, most small screens, 800 by 600 and 480 by 640, are wide and short. So why is your input form narrow and tall? Wider is better. Shorten it up and widen it out, and we might just squeak by, and then you wouldn't have to rewrite your scripts, if you even wrote them in the first place.

Secondly, scripts suck. ASP is ridiculous, Java scripts are the suckiest, but Perl/CGI, which is supposed to be the best, still sucks pretty bad. PHP is stable at least, but still sucks. True, scripts are written by juvenile unix and script weenies, and the script languages themselves are written by adolescent morons on Ritalin, but nobody should have to even "crack" a textbook, and then get a worthless CompSci Phd, in order to read and write scripts. Learn FORTH. Java is a joke.

Finally, if you are going to get into the browser, operating system and window size detection game, you have to go the full distance. Halfway there doesn't work, as this BBS amply demonstrates.

I recommend simplicity. Design your forms with the minimum amount of scripting possible, and skip the detection altogether, and it will work on the largest number of machines, operating systems and screens available. Let the operating system or the web browser handle the scrolling. We live in a world of evolving web browsers and standards, and it is virtually impossible to keep up with it, unless you are some sort of unix script weenie on steroids, and actually enjoy that sort of work.

Also, fix your color schemes. The sidebar frame links are almost unreadable on some of the pages.

Racism, Redneckism and good ol' boy back slapping is rampant on this BBS. The rest of you are too timid to confront it. If I thought there were any open minded sensitive new age guys around here, besides Raoul, I would post here.

Good luck with it.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
lifeform@atlantic.net
http://www.atlantic.net/~elifritz