Frames...

Ashwin recently wrote an editorial on why he really dislikes frames. I'm here to tell you all why he was completely wrong, in defense of my frames.

The best reason for myself to have my frames is to facilitate modifications. Were I to do what Ashwin suggests, putting my menu inside a table on every page, I would have to modify every page when i wanted to change the menu. With frames, I only have to change menu.html and then all the pages have the new menu. There is no compatible way of changing things in non-frame HTML without FrontPage Included Content or a hypertext processor like PHP, neither of which I feel like using. FrontPage is a Microsoft product, and PHP is something I would have to learn.

However, don't assume these are my only reasons. I also like frames because it allows me to scroll my page without losing sight of the menu. This has aesthetic benefits, as well as practical ones.

I would like to find a way to make it so that you could link directly from off site to a particular page, such as faq.html, and still see the menu. Right now, the only way is to link to the mainpage (or if you want, frames.html) and follow links to the information you seek. Only way I can think to do that is to have a <frameset> tag on every page with the menu and stuff in it. I suppose I could do that, but it would be a lot of work, and things work just fine around here just like they are.

So basically, I'm willing to admit that Ashwin is right, but I don't feel like taking steps to remove my frames. Therefore, they will stay how they are forever. Thank you for your time.