RE: [Q] META "Refresh" deprecated ?

> I'd just like to interject that I hate this use. Not in 
> complex forms, but
> on the front page of news sites like cnn.com. They typically 
> has a refresh
> rate of 15-30 minutes to ensure that you view the latest 
> news. The problem
> is when you use dial-up connection from countries where you 
> pay per minute
> (the majority of countries in the world).
> 
> A refresh usually causes a dial-up. If you have a shut-down after 20
> minutes, you can have this sequence: Automatic dialup, after 
> 20 minutes
> shut-down, after 10 minutes dial-up, after 20 minutes 
> shut-down... If you
> happen to leave your browser with cnn.com (or similar), shut 
> down and leave
> for a day, that cost is upwards of 25$ (I know, I've done that).


This is a very good point.  I wouldn't like that either.  I'm not saying
that cnn.com is right or wrong.  I wouldn't be happy to spend that 25$
either.  But, why don't you simply remove that autodial feature from IE?
When you are connected to the net, you surf, when you are finished, you
disconnect...?  Just an idea.

But this is not the point.

The point is that cnn.com designers found that refreshing every 30 minutes
makes that data always up to date. yeah, maby, but what happens if you are
reading that page and it gets refreshed to another page or another content?
You can't finish your paragraphe?  what the...?

THIS IS a bad use of the refresh.

It was mentionned in another post that the refresh would be replaced by
javascript, or someting like that (there were 3 options), well you would
have the same autodial problem (if javascript is enabled of course).

This is all true in the case of browsing the web.  

Our company develops Web Applications.  Some of our clients don't allow us
to use Client Side Scripting.  Some applications rely on HTML and cookies,
and the refresh has been usefull to counter act specific needs (Hiding a
Keep alive page in a hidden frame to keep the session active, for example).

The bad use of the refresh should not be the reason why the it's deprecated.
If this was true, pink backgrounds and  client side scripting would also be
deprecated...  if you know what I mean.

I agree that the user should have the choice of using that Refresh or not.

Pat
Hull, Quebec, Canada

Received on Tuesday, 22 February 2000 08:35:31 UTC