more on frames

Hi again,

and thanks for the interesting (if not varied) comments. I will separate
the two main areas of discussion thus:

ORIGINS/BIRTH

There seems to be an awful discrepancy here - no-one seems to agree on when
they were introduced (formally) and into which HTML! My old manual is the
"Web Publishing with HTML3.2" (Prof reference edition) by Laura Lemay,
(1996) who says that frames were introduced with Netscape 2 and IE3!  Who
is right? Can some learned member of this list point us to a definitive
statement on the matter - there must be something on the web.......

AESTHETICS

Clearly a lot of people don't like frames! Putting to one side those who
are visually impaired for a moment, I cannot understand this at all.
Obviously, as has been said, they can be overdone and used as a gimmick,
but when done with a bit of flair and skill I think they are a marvellous
way of navigating. Think of all the books you know which have a pull-out
containing a key, so that one has constant access to it nomatter what page
one is using - isn't this the same idea as frames? Also, the real joy of
hypertext (to me) is its non-linear reading capabilities. The constantly
visible menu provides the epitome of that position, and the use of frames
is the main example - though I'd like to here of more.....

CONCLUSIONS

Obviously, I have to keep on using a no-frames version to back up the main
one. Someone mentioned a gallery site, and indeed this is my own area of
interest. I have never really understood how one can use the <noframes> tag
to incorporate such as site. (A text alternative is different, obviously).
If anyone has the time to look at my site in this context I'd be interested
in any comments or tips.

BTW, some sites (such as image galleries) are predominantly visual anyway
and I would have thought that the visually impaired, mobile 'phones etc
etc, would be excluded as candidate viewers anyway - or am I wrong?

Over to you....

regards,
BOB (McClelland)
CORNWALL (England)
URBAN IMAGES: http://www.webart.u-net.com

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