Re: time is up warnings on web pages:

> Possible problems: I don't know how this would work with screen readers.

I imagine it would be very disruptive, as I don't think that typical
Refresh implemenations do If-Modified-Since and inhibit re-rendering if
there is no change.  I'd imagine the page would restart at the
beginning.  Also, even in GUIs, this use of refresh is disruptive, if
people are filling in forms, or a long way down a page that will reset
to the first screenful until the refetch reaches the right point.

It might just be usable to stop the user going away when the page takes
a long time to create, but I helieve there is an HTTP code for that, 
although support is probably poor to non-existent.

> Another alternative is Server Side Push; I mention this out of interest 
> only because I believe that it is only supported by the Netscape browser 
> family.

Refresh is a Netscape proprietory feature and, as far as I know, 
"Server Side Push" is just their marketing term for the the use of
Refresh, even though it is a pull at the protocol level.

Received on Thursday, 12 June 2003 17:24:08 UTC