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by billyhoffman 4016 days ago
"View Source" on this home page is a fun/terrible time capsule into web development in 2001.

1- FRAMES!

2- Table based layout

3- Preloading image via JavaScript! In the <HEAD> no less! Screw start render time, we are doing this!

4- Opening links in new pop-up windows. Ahh the days before tabs....

5- Swapping images with onmouseover, like some kind of an animal

6- Burning text into images to use a specific font

7- Browser sniffing the navigator.appName object
2 comments
david_p 4016 days ago
On the other hand, the sites still renders perfectly 14 years later.

It would be interesting to see how today's super-fancy-html5 javascript-everywhere no-tables Websites look in 14 years with a modern browser.

All the "terrible" techniques you mention actually do the job in a surprisingly time-robust way.

Engineering versus hype.

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znpy 4016 days ago
THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS. A MILLION TIMES THIS.

The source code is awful and crappy, but 14 years later it still renders.

Also if you save the page and load in the browser it will still load correctly.

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wcarss 4016 days ago
this might also be an artifact of the development of browsers -- IE was a dominant force until relatively recent times, and browsers had to standardize what existed, then build carefully on top.

It may be the case that the techniques used were particularly robust, but it may also be the case that we've striven to keep them unbroken.

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vectorjohn 4016 days ago
It's funny because it isn't just that HTML(5) and better CSS support exist, it's just sloppy in general. Either it wasn't taken seriously at the time, or I don't know what.

On the other hand, it's a working site that gets the job done, no matter how embarrassing behind the scenes.

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