>       Forgive me for questioning your premises but isn't it a bit odd to talk
>about usability of a system that's confined to only one of the many tools
>that people could use to access your system?  javascript is Netscape-
>specific and while Netscape Navigator/Communicator run on most platforms
>do you really think people will not use Microsoft Explorer, Spyglass
>Mosaic, etc.?

        Many of the issues Daniel brought up are usability specific, and while
JavaScript examples were asked for, I think he is trying to get at
interactions relating to form interaction that would be portable to
client-side processing in general.  For example a JavaScript / VBScript
hybrid would be codable to account for Netscape and Explorer to validate
forms without crashing either.  In the former example, I have found that
compiling JavaScript first is prudent -- also, anything not in
Microsoft's scripting object model may be re-routed to an over-riding
VBScript routine.  The hybrid solution satisfies a great percentage of
users -- I suspect Netscape and MSIE will begin converging more
script-wise.

        In any case, any good JavaScript example would provide good generic UI
solutions for form validation portable across any platform.

        Roger.

----------------------------------------
Roger Chang
User Interface Designer
Cognos Incorporated
(613) 738-1338 x3471
----------------------------------------

>----------
>From:  Graystreak[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent:  Thursday, March 06, 1997 11:36 PM
>To:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject:       Re: Validation using Javascript and forms on the web
>
>Daniel Szuc writes:
>
>> My colleague and I are currently looking at online forms (eg. use of
>> registration forms and feedback forms on the web) and all the issues
>> associated with using javascript for validation.
>
>Forgive me for questioning your premises but isn't it a bit odd to talk
>about usability of a system that's confined to only one of the many tools
>that people could use to access your system?  javascript is Netscape-
>specific and while Netscape Navigator/Communicator run on most platforms
>do you really think people will not use Microsoft Explorer, Spyglass
>Mosaic, etc.?
>
>If your user population is in fact tightly constrained in some way, you
>didn't specify it in your message.  I would think that user population
>characterization would be the first place to look for usability
>improvements.
>
>But perhaps I misunderstood?
>
>--
>--Alan Wexelblat                                O-
>MIT Media Lab - Intelligent Agents Group        finger(1) for PGP Key
>Voice: 617-253-9833, Pager: 617-945-1842        [log in to unmask]
>       http://wex.www.media.mit.edu/people/wex/
>"And you?  You're no one.  Traveling at the speed of life."
>