h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

from Post1:
<< ... especially if it is to do something that could not have reasonably been done any other way (e.g. using HTML 4 with CSS, or XML with XSL, or even SVG).>>

OK... I have yet to try anything 'real' in XML, have never used XSL and don't even know what SVG is...

Although I'm largely self taught in js, HTML and CSS, I feel I've had 'success' - I have one file with over 300 lines of js code (with over 40 functions, 70 variables, 60 if statements, 20 alerts and 10 dynamically populated optionLists plus a whole bunch of 'dynamic-redirection-around-the-page) and all up - incl over 5000 chars in comments - the js on its own is less than 30kB

So... the page downloads v quickly and works faster than any human eye can measure

Using a php formmail script, its been used by hundreds and hundreds of people to register (from all known platforms and browsers) for an annual event I run and I've had not one complaint.

Considering that I've had dozens of emails and face-to-face conversations with suggestions for 'additional content etc', I assume that there aren't any reasons _for_ complaint

So... why should I consider an alternative to js?

For me, having coded in Java, C, VB6 and VB.net, I find js to be a simple and elegant solution to writing clean, tidy and concise client-side code that works...



What are the alternatives?


And what are their benefits?


From what I've seen/learned so far, I really like CSS...

Can it be MORE easily/quickly (at run time) used (in HTML4) for the sort of things I mentioned above?