FAQ Sections - Feedback Wanted

Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread/d11878ddfb2ac892/

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

Garrett

In comp.lang.javascript message <gco4fl$qnt$1 (AT) registered (DOT) motzarella.org>
, Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:47:31, dhtml <dhtmlkitchen (AT) gmail (DOT) com> posted:

Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread/d
11878ddfb2ac892/

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

That will be the present sections 4 & 5 of <http://www.jibbering.com/faq
/index.html>.

Another category is those questions relating to ECMAScript/DOM without
reference to anything visual or external :-
5.13 How do I trim whitespace?
5.17 How do I make a 10 second delay?
5.20 My element is named myselect[], how do I access it?
5.34 How do I access a property of an object using a string?
5.25 How do I format the lastModified date with javascript?
5.35 When should I use eval?
5.36 Why doesn't the global variable "divId" always refer to the
element with id="divId"?

Another is communication beyond that inherent in ECMAScript and HTML :-
5.3 How can I access the client-side filesystem?
5.4 How can I see in javascript if a web browser accepts cookies?
5.14 How do I force a reload from the server/prevent caching?
5.15 How do I get a perl/asp/php variable into client-side javascript?
5.39 What is Ajax?
5.40 Why is my Ajax page not updated properly when using an HTTP GET
request in Internet Explorer?


Change
5.12 How do I modify the current page in a browser?
to
5.12 How do I modify content in the current page?
since the old wording might be thought to refer to page reloading or
fetching a different page.

In Section 2.3, for citation, it would be helpful of the internal
headings were "numbered", perhaps by typing letters in the source :
A. How to ask ...


If a topic has N entries, and is to be divided with K levels throughout,
then the number of entries in each leaf level must average the Kth root
of N. In deciding the splitting, one should have a weak preference for
leaves to be mostly of similar size.

"Posting Code" has 72 twice.

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQish topics, acronyms, & links.
Proper <= 4-line sig. separator as above, a line exactly "-- " (SonOfRFC1036)
Do not Mail News to me. Before a reply, quote with ">" or "> " (SonOfRFC1036)

On Oct 10, 1:47*pm, dhtml <dhtmlkitc... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread...

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

Garrett

Sounds good to me.

On Oct 10, 10:47*am, dhtml <dhtmlkitc... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread...

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

Garrett

Are you maintaining the FAQ now?

Peter

Peter Michaux wrote:

On Oct 10, 10:47 am, dhtml <dhtmlkitc... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

Are you maintaining the FAQ now?

Yes.

Peter

--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ <URL: http://jibbering.com/faq/ >

On Oct 10, 10:47*am, dhtml <dhtmlkitc... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread...

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

I don't see any benefit to breaking up the document. Better to focus
on the actual content than worry about the packaging.

Peter

Dr J R Stockton wrote:

In comp.lang.javascript message <gco4fl$qnt$1 (AT) registered (DOT) motzarella.org
, Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:47:31, dhtml <dhtmlkitchen (AT) gmail (DOT) com> posted:
Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread/d
11878ddfb2ac892/

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

That will be the present sections 4 & 5 of <http://www.jibbering.com/faq
/index.html>.

Another category is those questions relating to ECMAScript/DOM without
reference to anything visual or external :-

An 'Other' category?

5.13 How do I trim whitespace?
5.17 How do I make a 10 second delay?
5.20 My element is named myselect[], how do I access it?

That one seems like it belongs in 'Forms' section, to me.

5.34 How do I access a property of an object using a string?
5.25 How do I format the lastModified date with javascript?
5.35 When should I use eval?
5.36 Why doesn't the global variable "divId" always refer to the
element with id="divId"?

Another is communication beyond that inherent in ECMAScript and HTML :-
5.3 How can I access the client-side filesystem?
5.4 How can I see in javascript if a web browser accepts cookies?

Cookies is part of the DOM (document.cookie). But then so are forms.

5.14 How do I force a reload from the server/prevent caching?
5.15 How do I get a perl/asp/php variable into client-side javascript?
5.39 What is Ajax?
5.40 Why is my Ajax page not updated properly when using an HTTP GET
request in Internet Explorer?


Change
5.12 How do I modify the current page in a browser?
to
5.12 How do I modify content in the current page?

OK.

since the old wording might be thought to refer to page reloading or
fetching a different page.

In Section 2.3, for citation, it would be helpful of the internal
headings were "numbered", perhaps by typing letters in the source :
A. How to ask ...

That can be changed to an OL element using list-style to determine the
marker type.

list-style-type: iroha;

If a topic has N entries, and is to be divided with K levels throughout,
then the number of entries in each leaf level must average the Kth root
of N. In deciding the splitting, one should have a weak preference for
leaves to be mostly of similar size.

Size as "number of items" or "amount of text"? It might be worth
considering the amount of text sent out in the bi-weekly mailings.

"Posting Code" has 72 twice.

--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ <URL: http://jibbering.com/faq/ >

Peter Michaux wrote:

On Oct 10, 10:47 am, dhtml <dhtmlkitc... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Breaking up the FAQ has been discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread...

I'm interested in doing this now. I propose something along the lines of:

* Numbers
* Windows and Frames
* Forms

I would like to hear feedback on this proposal.

I don't see any benefit to breaking up the document. Better to focus
on the actual content than worry about the packaging.

It's easier to find stuff if its organized into meaningful sections
("Section 5" doesn't have much meaning as "Forms" for example). People
usually scan through.

We had several questions related to math and numbers interspersed with
questions about frames, preventing access to a web page, get the value
of a form control, etc.. A burgeoning document like the CLJ FAQ is not
easy to scan through, especially with the some of the "quick" answers
being several paragraphs (that includes the one I added about window
size). I created a numbers section. I want to create more sections.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/browse_frm/thread/b5c32520edf6db97/

Peter

--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ <URL: http://jibbering.com/faq/ >

In comp.lang.javascript message <gcts9r$6g4$1 (AT) registered (DOT) motzarella.org>
, Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:04:42, dhtml <dhtmlkitchen (AT) gmail (DOT) com> posted:

Dr J R Stockton wrote:

Another category is those questions relating to ECMAScript/DOM
without
reference to anything visual or external :-

An 'Other' category?

I think that the idea of features related only to the manipulation of
ordinary variables deserves a subsection, and with a better title than
"Other", though I have no title suggestion. It would accommodate string
manipulation and maybe date/time, for example; also function grammar.

5.13 How do I trim whitespace?
5.17 How do I make a 10 second delay?
5.20 My element is named myselect[], how do I access it?

That one seems like it belongs in 'Forms' section, to me.

Is such an element necessarily in a form? It should be next to 5.34, or
maybe merged.

5.34 How do I access a property of an object using a string?
5.25 How do I format the lastModified date with javascript?
5.35 When should I use eval?
5.36 Why doesn't the global variable "divId" always refer to the
element with id="divId"?
Another is communication beyond that inherent in ECMAScript and HTML
:-
5.3 How can I access the client-side filesystem?
5.4 How can I see in javascript if a web browser accepts cookies?

Cookies is part of the DOM (document.cookie). But then so are forms.

Cookies are not really part of the document; they do not show. The
headings must relate to naive user expectations, not to technicalities.

If a topic has N entries, and is to be divided with K levels
throughout,
then the number of entries in each leaf level must average the Kth root
of N. In deciding the splitting, one should have a weak preference for
leaves to be mostly of similar size.

Size as "number of items" or "amount of text"? It might be worth
considering the amount of text sent out in the bi-weekly mailings.

I meant "number of items". While the number of weekly bytes used to
post FAQ articles is less than that used to discuss them, there's no
cause for concern. Exceptionally large or small sections are of course
candidates for putting elsewhere or merging.


At present there is a 1:1 mapping between questions (as precedes Section
1) and answers (bodies in Sections 4 & 5). But sometimes quite
different questions have substantially similar answers. One could start
with a list of questions, each with a link (or more?) to the relevant
answers, those having subject lines describing their contents.

Crude example :
Q1 : Trim strings?
Q2 : Add leading zero?
Q3 : Read "YYYY-MM-DD"?
could all point to
A3 : Use of RegExps
(not that RegExps look efficient for LZ; but they are possible).

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQish topics, acronyms, & links.
Proper <= 4-line sig. separator as above, a line exactly "-- " (SonOfRFC1036)
Do not Mail News to me. Before a reply, quote with ">" or "> " (SonOfRFC1036)

Dr J R Stockton wrote:

In comp.lang.javascript message <gcts9r$6g4$1 (AT) registered (DOT) motzarella.org
, Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:04:42, dhtml <dhtmlkitchen (AT) gmail (DOT) com> posted:
Dr J R Stockton wrote:

Another category is those questions relating to ECMAScript/DOM
without
reference to anything visual or external :-
An 'Other' category?

I think that the idea of features related only to the manipulation of
ordinary variables deserves a subsection,

Ah, but what is ordinary?

and with a better title than

"Other", though I have no title suggestion. It would accommodate string
manipulation and maybe date/time, for example; also function grammar.

"Objects and Types" ?
+ "Numbers"
+ "Objects"
+ "Strings and Regexes"
+ "Dates"


The thinking behind having "Strings and Regexes" as one category is that
it's more task-oriented. How do I do [x] with a string?

5.13 How do I trim whitespace?
5.17 How do I make a 10 second delay?
5.20 My element is named myselect[], how do I access it?
That one seems like it belongs in 'Forms' section, to me.

Is such an element necessarily in a form? It should be next to 5.34, or
maybe merged.

It could be a form control in a form, an attribute, a form element. Most
of the time it will be a problem with a form control.

In PHP, elements with shared name would have to be named with a "[]", as
in "things[]". I don't know if they ever fixed that.

Cookies is part of the DOM (document.cookie). But then so are forms.

Cookies are not really part of the document; they do not show. The
headings must relate to naive user expectations, not to technicalities.

Many things in the DOM do not show, e.g. document.defaultView,
document.getElementsByTagName, document.images, document.doctype,
document.referrer, document.URL, document.domain, document.createEvent.

At present there is a 1:1 mapping between questions (as precedes Section
1) and answers (bodies in Sections 4 & 5). But sometimes quite
different questions have substantially similar answers. One could start
with a list of questions, each with a link (or more?) to the relevant
answers, those having subject lines describing their contents.

A question could lead to a specific answer within that section. It
might be the case that the answer links to another answer, which exists
in a different section.

Sub-subsections might seem like a good idea but would require change to
the XML and the scripts that process that to text and HTML. I would like
to avoid that, if possible.

What do you think of:

,--------------------------------------------------------------------

• Meta-FAQ meta-questions
* Which newsgroups deal with javascript?
* What questions are on-topic for CLJ?
* What should I do before posting to CLJ?
* Why was my post not answered?
* Why do some posts have <FAQENTRY> in them?
* How do I make a suggestion?

• Javascript Tips
o What is ECMAScript?
o What is JScript?
o What are object models?
o What is the document object model?
o Internationalisation and Multinationalisation in javascript.
o Where are the CLJ archives located?
o What does the future hold for ECMAScript?

• Javascript Resources
o What books cover javascript?
o What online resources are available?

• Dates
o How do I format the lastModified date with javascript?
• Numbers
o How do I convert a Number into a String with exactly 2 decimal
places?
o Why does simple decimal arithmetic give strange results?
o Why does K = parseInt('09') set K to 0?
o Why does 1+1 equal 11? or How do I convert a string to a number?
o How do I generate a random integer from 1 to N?
• Objects
o When should I use eval?
o How do I access a property of an object using a string?
• Strings and RegExps
o How do I trim whitespace?

• DOM and Forms
o How do I get the value of a form control?
o My element is named myselect[], how do I access it?
o Why doesn't the global variable "divId" always refer to the
element with id="divId"?
o Why are my rollovers so slow?
o How do I disable the right mouse button?
o How do I detect Opera/Netscape/IE?
o How do I modify the content of the current page?
o How can I see in javascript if a web browser accepts cookies?

• Windows and Frames
o How do I communicate between frames in a web browser?
o Why does framename.print() not print the correct frame in IE?
o How do I change print settings with window.print()?
o I have window.status="Moomin"; why doesn't the statusbar
change?
o How can I disable the back button in a web browser?
o How do I find the size of the window?
o How do I change the text in the url/location bar?
o How do I POST a form to a new window?
o How do I change the confirm box to say yes/no or default to
cancel?
o Why do I get permission denied when accessing a frame/window?
o How do I modify the content of the current page?
o How do I prompt a "Save As" dialog for an accepted mime type?
o How do I open a new window with javascript?
o How do I check to see if a child window is open, before opening
another?
o How do I close a window and why does it not work on the first
one?
o How do I make a 10 second delay?

• Ajax
o What is Ajax?
o Why is my Ajax page not updated properly when using an HTTP GET
request in Internet Explorer?
o How do I download a page to a variable?
o How do I get a perl/asp/php variable into client-side
javascript?
o How do I log-out a user when they leave my site?
o How do I run a server side script?
o How do I force a reload from the server/prevent caching?

• Debugging
o How do I get my browser to report javascript errors?


• Things not to attempt in a browser
o How can I prevent access to a web page by using javascript?
o How do I protect my javascript code?
o How can I access the client-side filesystem?
o I have <a href="javascript:somefunction()"> what ... ?


`-------------------------------------------------------------------------/

?

The server side is inflexible to creating subcategories. The XML would
have to change and so would the two scripts for processing (it used to
be three, but I refactored that). It would probably also mess up Bart's
daily posts.

So, in the interest of getting it done, I want a hierarchy no deeper
than two.

Garrett

--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ <URL: http://jibbering.com/faq/ >