RE: When is a Windows network not a Windows network

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Booth Martin
>
> I believe the premise for your argument is that new extensions only
> available through IE are so far superior to all other methods
> that one must
> choose to use IE's specialized extensions.  That has not been my
> experience.

Unfortunately, IE's support for the document object model, and it's superior
event handling capabilities, do indeed make it superior to Netscape.  So
superior, in fact, that there are some features I have yet to be able to
recreate in Netscape, such as changing the value of a keystroke dynamically.


> Further to that reasoning, it has been my experience that
> Microsoft's track
> record of "embrace, extend, exterminate" will continue with IE and in the
> end you will have used your own shovel to dig your grave.
>
> I agree with you that this is not a religious issue.  Many of us
> have  heard
> the M$ choir and we are not ready to be baptized.

If you've read anything I've written over the years, you'll know that I am
the least likely person in the world to advocate a Microsoft solution.  I
believe their software in general to be bloated, buggy and insecure.  I
think their marketing strategies are designed to make money from planned
obsolescence rather than added features and that these techniques have cost
the IT industry literally billions of dollars over the years.

At the same time, I have to be able to deliver software that solves my
clients' business needs, and to that end, Netscape is simply no longer a
viable option.  If the Mozilla community gets around to implementing those
programmatic event handling features that make IE so powerful, I for one
will be happy to include the required code to make my product compatible.
But right now it would require a complete rewrite of my Javascript code to
support NS, and that's economically impractical.

Would that it were not so, but that's the reality.  My customers rely on me
to ultimately make the bet choice for their business, regardless of my
personal opinions.  Choosing IE over Netscape, while distasteful, is
unfortunately the best choice - for now.

Joe