[NTLUG:Discuss] HTML help

[Greg Edwards]

Rusty Haddock wrote:
> Greg,
>     How 'bout using frames?  You can make those critters appear
> and disappear on mouse-click depending on how you use the TARGET=
> option..  Dunno if the TARGET= option was 4.0 for frame usage or
> not.  This is just off the top of my head...
> 
> 	-Rusty-

Frames, and target for that matter, were not official until 4.0 so I'm 
really breaking my own rules already ;)  As I understand the sequence of 
events, part of the reason 4.0 came so quickly after 3.2 was the 
inclusion of frames, some of the style tags, and SML.  Most of the 
browser builders already had frames as supported extensions in their 3.2 
compliant products.

I have considered frames rather than popups but they create some other 
problems of their own.  From the get-go the design of the game was to 
use popups to present multiple displays.

Rather than attempt to force a player to work within the layout I impose 
on them by saying this display is located here and that one over there 
I've decided to let the player put displays where they want.  Displays 
are not always going to be visible or needed so the use of frames 
becomes a problem when the player really only wants 2 displays out of 8 
on the screen.  Then what to do when a player closes a frame and you 
update their window.  If you don't account for the frame being closed 
it'll just come back and the player will need to close it again.

The basic idea here is that 1 window will work like a keypad (or game 
control like a playstation) and all other information or control 
displays will be activated from the keypad.  The problem with HTML in 
this scenario is that I can't deactivate a window from the keypad or 
when the player logs out of the game.  All of the windows will have to 
be manually closed by the player, including the keypad.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc. - http://www.nas-inet.com
======================================================
Galactic Outlaw        - http://goutlaw.nas-inet.com
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