| The author seems to be completely ignoring the fact that sometimes navigation SHOULD be one-way only. If the link or button you've clicked on makes a change on the server that affects that page, it might not make sense to display the old page when you hit Back. For example, you were on the edit page of a list of messages you want to send to another user on the site. You finished making changes and clicked "Send". Now you’re on a page with a message saying, "Messages Sent!". What do you expect when you click the Back button? 1. The edit page with the list of “pending” messages that have actually already been sent?
2. The edit page with an empty list of messages or the original messages but now with a “sent” status? I’d argue that the second option is far less confusing for a user, but that’s not what you’ve suggested should happen. And what happens if you click Send again? In the first case, you could send the same messages again, or maybe the server will reply with, "I don’t know what you’re talking about - those messages are already sent". There’s no way for a user to know! Caching is all good and well, but sometimes you really don't want a page to be cached. That's why there are headers for caching... |