Aimless Rant #1: Popup Blocking
Let's Remove Core HTML Functionality!
Or Why I Hate BrokenBrowserSP2 With A Vengeance
Navigation around Zazzybob.com
As you may be aware, some parts of this site open links in new windows. There are two main occasions where I have enabled this behaviour. The first is in the Script Repository (/bin) where each script you view will open in a new window. My reasoning behind this is so that you can easily compare and contrast scripts, and then just close them to return to the repository. The second place this behaviour occurs is when opening an external off-site link - this is so that Zazzybob.com stays "in the background" so you can easily return rather than clicking back and reloading (if your cache is set up that way).
Okay, So Where's The Beef?
My beef is with a certain browser, which we shall call BrokenBrowserSP2. I'm sure you know which browser I'm talking about ;-). There are two classes of browsers in the world - one's that work, and one's that don't. Mozilla Firefox now at a stable 1.0 release (even though it was more stable than BrokenBrowserSP2 at version 0.1!) WORKS.
"Why does it work?", I hear you say. Because the popup blocking features work (amongst many other things), that's why. Let's examine this. Firefox's popup blocking is intelligent enough to block UNSOLICITED popups ONLY. Therefore, when you click on a link which has a target of _blank, you are explicitly REQUESTING that the link be opened, so IMHO the link should open in a new window as requested. And with Firefox, lo-and-behold, this is EXACTLY what happens.
"Okay, why doesn't BrokenBrowserSP2 work?" you may now be asking. Because it's popup blocking features don't work. If you have your popup blocking settings set to "High", BrokenBrowserSP2 decides to block absolutely everything INCLUDING legitimate calls to target="_blank". Therefore, BrokenBrowserSP2 can in some cases remove vital functionality from websites (not only this site, other sites such as internet banking sites use popups to convey and request information). You can, however, set the popup blocking level to "Medium", and this allows explicitly requested popups to be displayed. But the "High" setting may aswell be replaced by a checkbox labelled "Break websites deliberately".
I know that when I visit a site, click on a link, and nothing happens, I think "What idiot has designed this site" and click off somewhere else. This is what BrokenBrowserSP2 is leading millions of users to believe.
But Am I Really That Bothered?
Yes and No. Because my site is all about UNIX and Linux, not BrokenOS, most visitors will be using a Mozilla or KHTML based browser which will work marvellously. Now, just to be sure as not to discriminate against all you BrokenOS users, you can obtain a patch to fix BrokenBrowserSP2 by clicking here. But then again, that'll open in a new window, which BrokenBrowserSP2 will probably block!
The problem is that GlobalCorp (Greenmond, USA) are now disabling core parts of the W3C's HTML standards, by having features within BrokenBrowserSP2 that deliberately break HTML and stop websites being displayed how the author intended them.
Now, true UNSOLICITED popups/popunders are a plague, and should be blocked. And good browsers such as Firefox do this without sacrificing core HTML functionality.
</rant>
