Mail Call
From: Sjon Svenson
Subject: daynote
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 00:33:26 -0700 (PDT)Script this
One advantage of JavaScript (or VBS or...) is that it runs on the local machine. That means it's fast (users running under-utilised multi-gigahertz boxes while your poor overtaxed server is overheating). If, for example, you make a form and want the user to enter a time and date you can check that on the page. Without browser-wide scripting the whole form has to make a round trip to the server. Without the script the page may be smaller but it has to pass back and forth. So what you gain in bandwidth with smaller code you loose on roundtrips (unless the user makes no errors...). So the gain/loss is not in bandwidth but in execution speed and connection latencies. The difference is negligible unless you hang on with and old PSTN modem to a flakey line.
-- Kind regards,
Sjon Svenson
From: Jon Barrett
Subject: Javascript vs. Post/Get
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:24:48 -0400"But even if I didn't use a different browser, why use javascript to submit a form when you could use post or get? Neither post nor get opens the user to any security threats (AFAIK). Nada. None. Zip. What advantage to the user is there to using javascript submit button? Again, nada, none, zip. "
OTOH, many website attacks rely on buffer overflow in POST or GET. Using javascript allows the website owner to perform post-processing and data validation on the local PC rather than on their own server. Thus it provides the site owner with improved security.
Jon
Jon Barrett
Kensington, MD
Aloha!