Check if a Page was done with Frontpage
December 20, 2006 | 8:10 amOther than the horrible colors and the misuse of the <font> and <table> tag with no hint of CSS, there is one almost reliable way of detecting wether a page was done in frontpage.
The <meta> tag. In all the pages that frontpage generates, you’ll find this:
<meta name"GENERATOR" content="Microsoft Frontpage x.x">
While Frontpage puts it there by default, an enterprising user could hand edit the html and remve that line. But, everytime the page is saved, this comes back, unless you have “preserve html” enabled.
What this means is that, if the page is designed by someone who doesn’t know to get rid of that line, then it will show up in the final markup…
While I have nothing against Frontpage being used by Students and the occassional computer user, I do STRONGLY object to that being used in a government website with transactions by the millions going on.
Why? Would you prefer that they used Notepad instead?
Sriram | December 23, 2006 | 5:25 amWhy? Would you prefer that they used Notepad instead?
The Govt. Website, being a money making machine, should be
yuvipanda | December 25, 2006 | 5:55 amThe Govt. Website, being a money making machine, should be done in something more worthy. For example, making wrong password gives you an ASP error including the full path to the access database….
And, Usability horrors come bundled with Frontpage: The change password section of the site asks for your password only once, no confirmation, the password limit is 9 chars but there is no indication, the main part of the site is in a frame that’s 20% of the page at the bottom, 500s for no apparent reason in the middle of the auction, and a bidding process which makes sure you’ve to make a call to the equally bad support before you can make a bid…
And, this ain’t no tyranny of the geeks: A friend of my father’s lost some 2 lacs due do that….
And somewhere, the fact that the tax money that was allotted to make this website went to a scumbag politician’s pocket does make me want to rant…
P.S. I don’t have anything against frontpage being used for static pages: I learnt HTML in frontpage.
None of the problems you pointed out are due to
Sriram Krishnan | January 3, 2007 | 9:05 amNone of the problems you pointed out are due to Frontpage - I can show you tons of sites with worse design built using other tools. How is any of what you said Frontpage’s fault?
I didn't say that Frontpage is the cause: It is
yuvipanda | January 3, 2007 | 12:19 pmI didn’t say that Frontpage is the cause: It is just a symptom that a DailyWTF entry is somewhere behind that…
I'm sorry if it sounded like I was blaming FrontPage
yuvipanda | January 3, 2007 | 12:30 pmI’m sorry if it sounded like I was blaming FrontPage for all that: I was just trying to blame the people behind the choice of Frontpage.