Ranting about well-engineered web pages

I resolved to make my web pages demonstrate you can say a lot, gracefully, without resorting to a lot of superfluous complexity. Special thanks to the MIT Information Systems Home Page Team for Web page style template I used.

These pages should look just fine on any web browser that can display jpeg images, and put up tables; even over a slow link.

I encourage everyone to code their web pages to the least common denominator: NO Frames, NO Java, NO Java-Script, NO Shockwave, NO Plug-ins, NO Single-source features of ANY Kind.

Don't use frames. They are flaky, ugly, and get in the way of good user interface design. The MIT Web Development team crafted a calm and sensible rationale for avoiding frames.

My friend Andy Oakland has a rant about web pages that captures my feelings perfectly on the subject of special plug-ins and features that work on only one browser. If you want to show off how clever you are, make pages that work for everyone! Your readers will know you for your message, not for the noise of the bells and whistles you distracted them with.


Last updated: $Date: 2001/01/05 23:01:51 $ by $Author: wdc $.
Bill Cattey <wdc@mit.edu>