- From: Neil Gulati <ngulati@scu.edu.au>
- Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 12:56:05 +1000 (EST)
- To: www-talk@w3.org
It's kind of a tangent, but... I think we've got to accept that HTTP and a lot of user and programmer expectations around it's use are completely out of date. Hypertext was invented as a new kind of document and now we are using HTTP as a remote application serving protocol. The differances couldn't be greater. Until a completely different system, maybe more than even a protocol, replaces HTTP we are going to have to move forward as best we can. To bring it to the point. F*** the "BACK" button. I hardly ever use it myself, and so I believe users are ready to leave it behind as well. New versions of popular browsers should also start to reduce it's prominence on their interfaces, too. Neil. ________________________________________________________________________________ but this is obtuse to a user. why should a user perceive any difference between a page they got from going back and a page they got from going forward? In highly dynamic web applications this caching of back business is a big problem with the http standard I settle this by trying to prevent the user from desiring to use the back button at all. in some ways this only makes things worse, of course, but there you go. my stategies are to provide key links on toolbars and make sure back links are integrated with the text where the user would perceive a reason to go back. And I always do a redirect after a post. has any one got others? Grahame ________________________________________________________________________________ Neil Gulati +61 (0) 2 6620 3531 work ngulati@scu.edu.au +61 (0) 414 858 782 mobile Unix Systems Information Technology Directorate Southern Cross University Northern Rivers NSW Australia ________________________________________________________________________________ Try this one - http://www.perl.com/pace/pub/What_Makes_UNIX_People_So_Smart?
Received on Tuesday, 29 June 1999 22:56:15 UTC