DD Social Thread (v1)

**djr33** · 11-21-2012, 06:44 AM

To everyone, let me add that I'm just explaining ddadmin's policy. I had the same questions a while ago and he said that he specifically keeps the old scripts around for support reasons-- to not abandon those who are using them.
But it may be time to revisit that. I don't disagree, but I see his point as well.

---
Bernie,

How many people use scripts that don't work?

There are three groups of relevant users:
1. Users who have a semi-working script on their page who aren't aware that it doesn't work for everyone, or doesn't work well. An example here is a "no right click" script that doesn't actually work (not for many people anyway) but makes them happy.

2. Users who have an old site that just doesn't work any more-- they may want to modernize it, and why not stop by DD to see if there's an update?

3. Uses who now find these scripts and want to use them. A lot of the outdated scripts also represent an older style of scripts, such as "no right click" scripts-- those just aren't a big thing at this point in time, and they also don't really work; but that doesn't mean people don't WANT them. And when they search for them, they end up here. (Admittedly it's slightly confusing if they don't work well, but they work as well as they can, which isn't well.)

In fact, the 3rd group also represents another reason to keep the scripts around-- to attract more users to DD who want those scripts-- if not, they'll go somewhere else.

**bernie1227** · 11-21-2012, 07:04 AM

I'm not talking about scripts that don't work 'well', I'm talking about scripts that do not work at all, as in, nothing happens at all fr people who aren't using ie4 and netscape.
I suppose it can be best said in the words of James (Twey) and ricp from webdeveloper.com:

Originally Posted by ricp

You could not be more right. There is some utterly atrocious JS out there, and a fair percentage of that is people claiming to know what they are doing. The people in charge of things like DynamicDrive should be stabbed in the face, repeatedly. They spread bad code like the plague.

Thing is JS is a scripting language it is just not comparable to PHP/C#/Java and the like and not just because they exist in different environments (that said you can code JS server side). JS is really showing it's age and no amount of polishing with stupid buzzwords (web2.0/ajax/etc) can paper over the cracks.

That said, I love the fact it is unbelievably loosely typed (want a string? add a "". want a number? times it by 1. stunning!).

and then James' reply:

You could not be more right. There is some utterly atrocious JS out there, and a fair percentage of that is people claiming to know what they are doing. The people in charge of things like DynamicDrive should be stabbed in the face, repeatedly. They spread bad code like the plague.

I'm not so sure about the stabbing-in-the-face part, but other than that, you're right. You've quite stirred up the forums over there, so we've decided to have a mad rush to rewrite as many scripts as possible. I'd like to offer you the chance to join in

Thing is JS is a scripting language it is just not comparable to PHP/C#/Java and the like and not just because they exist in different environments (that said you can code JS server side). JS is really showing it's age and no amount of polishing with stupid buzzwords (web2.0/ajax/etc) can paper over the cracks.

Mozilla agrees with you, and thus should be bringing Python as a built-in client-side scripting language into the next version of Firefox. Obviously at first this will only be of use to extension developers, but hopefully it'll catch on with other browsers too.

Originally Posted by boxxertrumps
I agree that allot of people only Think they know what they're doing, but that goes for any sort of profession/hobby.
More so in this profession than others, I'm afraid.

And what makes the code "bad"?
Most of the code on DD is inefficient and/or full of bad coding practices such as browser detection. A few scripts don't work at all in anything but IE.

**djr33** · 11-21-2012, 07:10 AM

Well, that's still "not well" in that those might be websites designed for those browsers. The scripts aren't broken; the browsers have just changed.

Obviously we shouldn't recommend using them now, but should all traces of them be removed from the site in case anyone has a question about them? Again, a question for ddadmin.

**bernie1227** · 11-21-2012, 07:13 AM

crosspost/edit, read the new post ^

Recently I've been having a crack at 'restoring' some of them (starting a few weeks ago), and some of them frankly, aren't really worth restoring.

**djr33** · 11-21-2012, 07:16 AM

I was serious when I suggested that you compile a list of outdated/problematic scripts for ddadmin

And of course updating them is a good idea-- you can post those in the bug reports section (I think these are bugs); or just the submit-a-script section if they're only improvements to functional scripts.

**bernie1227** · 11-21-2012, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by djr33

I was serious when I suggested that you compile a list of outdated/problematic scripts for ddadmin

I did that a few weeks ago

And of course updating them is a good idea-- you can post those in the bug reports section (I think these are bugs); or just the submit-a-script section if they're only improvements to functional scripts.

ddadmin suggested blogging them, as that might be more accesible than finding a forum post.

**djr33** · 11-21-2012, 07:29 AM

Hm, where was that? And sure, blogging it is fine-- it depends on scale. You shouldn't post hundreds of threads, but maybe one thread with everything if you're doing it systematically, or just a few threads if you're only looking at a couple scripts independently.

**bernie1227** · 11-21-2012, 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by djr33

Hm, where was that?

via pm.

And sure, blogging it is fine-- it depends on scale. You shouldn't post hundreds of threads, but maybe one thread with everything if you're doing it systematically, or just a few threads if you're only looking at a couple scripts independently.

Once I've finished restoring all the ones I'm planning on restoring, I'll post them all in the form of jsfiddles or try and put them up for download somewhere on a blog. Basically I'm planning on releasing them all at once (hopefully sometime during summer (Australian summer,otherwise you'll be waiting a while

)).