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 | DHTML was a buzzword in 1997 with the advent of generation 4 browsers. It allowed effects like the one to the left on webpages. This type of effect was so cool everyone jumped on the DHTML bandwagon, especially Netscape and Microsoft. Newer browsers added more DHTML features, but each company created their browsers to respond to DHTML differently(what else is new!?!). Hence DHTML has not really taken off like everyone originally thought it would. It is somewhat complicated to write due to the differences between the two major browsers. Yet, there are some things you can do with it. |
DHTML is not really a new language, but a combination of HTML, Javascript, and CSS. It really is a change in the browsers themselves after generation 4 added some functions to Netscape and Internet Explorer. Each browser handled it differently. Netscape created a new tag, the <layer> tag. They essentially insert the script into the <layer> tag. Explorer uses CSS more than Netscape does, but does not support the <layer> tag. So you can see that creating effects like the one above require a fair amount of code. You have to do conditional ifs to check for the browser platform and then direct the script different ways depending on what browser your user is running. We will not spend any time on DHTML specifically, but once you have the basics of Javascript, CSS, and of course HTML, you are ready to play with DHTML. Chapter 10 in your book has some examples and uses of DHTML. Check it out if you have time. Not Required Also some interesting DHTML effects are found at Dynamic Drive. Be careful not to abuse these!!
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