RE: When is it appropriate to use HTML frames?

Frames got there original bad rep from minimal/incomplete/buggy support in
early browser versions. That has all been fixed now. 

However, the biggest problem with frames, IMHO, is that you cannot go
directly to a specific page since most pages are loaded in the "content
frame" and the URL remains that of the frames page. If you type the URL of
the content page you miss all the surrounding frame. Now you can get around
this using tome JavaScript trickery but it's not great. Having said that,
the ability to refresh only a section of a page is the greatest advantage of
frames. 

So, in short I've seen systems that use frames very well and I've seen
systems that use frames very poorly.

Personally, I use frames quite a bit for applications, but not too much for
"brochure-type" web sites.

-Walden

-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan M. Andelin [mailto:nathanma@haaga.com]
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 10:22 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: When is it appropriate to use HTML frames?


A few weeks from now I'll be starting on the development of a new web
application.  I've been leaning toward using "frames" in the user interface.

However, I've noticed the trend in the last year or so that web sites have
been moving away from the use of frames.  Also, I noted a comment from Brad
Stone a couple weeks ago about "beginners" getting caught up with frames.

On the other hand, MS uses frames in several of their web applications.
Frames are part of the HTML spec.  Both IE and Navigator have supported
frames for several versions now.  So, why not use frames?



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