2nd October 2015, 9:45 AM
There are a few "features" of HTML that honestly need to be disabled in modern browsers. Here's a few.
Pop-ups: No seriously, who wants these? Nobody, that's who. I can't see any advantage at all to pop-up code still existing. There IS an advantage to popping up a separate TAB, but not a full window. The ability to start up a whole new browser instance should ONLY exist for the user, not the web page.
Pop-unders, menu bar "disabling", pretty much any code that controls how a pop-up window forms: If HTML standard makers just can't bear to part with pop-up code, at LEAST prevent them from being able to dictate the terms of how that new browser instance starts.
Built-in browser "alert" boxes: This one is a bit confusing. This isn't actually rendered on the standard tab, but is a request to the browser itself to put up a box with a message with buttons that MUST be pressed, can't be dismissed, and you can't even close the browser unless the user clicks something. These are used primarily to force users to "accept" stuff or keep a constant train of pop-ups from being shut down. Process closing from ctrl-alt-del is pretty much the only way to deal with these.
On-close code of absolutely any kind: This is HTML code that frankly should never have been allowed to exist. Browsers shouldn't even HAVE hooks that let HTML access this functionality. This is when you close a window and the page is coded to do stuff, like open up two more windows. Again, total process closure is about the only way to deal with this.
I mean seriously, the ability for HTML to do this to a browser should NOT exist in a modern browser! There is no advantage except to malware makers! I can promise the net in general would be far safer without these, and no one anywhere would miss them.
Pop-ups: No seriously, who wants these? Nobody, that's who. I can't see any advantage at all to pop-up code still existing. There IS an advantage to popping up a separate TAB, but not a full window. The ability to start up a whole new browser instance should ONLY exist for the user, not the web page.
Pop-unders, menu bar "disabling", pretty much any code that controls how a pop-up window forms: If HTML standard makers just can't bear to part with pop-up code, at LEAST prevent them from being able to dictate the terms of how that new browser instance starts.
Built-in browser "alert" boxes: This one is a bit confusing. This isn't actually rendered on the standard tab, but is a request to the browser itself to put up a box with a message with buttons that MUST be pressed, can't be dismissed, and you can't even close the browser unless the user clicks something. These are used primarily to force users to "accept" stuff or keep a constant train of pop-ups from being shut down. Process closing from ctrl-alt-del is pretty much the only way to deal with these.
On-close code of absolutely any kind: This is HTML code that frankly should never have been allowed to exist. Browsers shouldn't even HAVE hooks that let HTML access this functionality. This is when you close a window and the page is coded to do stuff, like open up two more windows. Again, total process closure is about the only way to deal with this.
I mean seriously, the ability for HTML to do this to a browser should NOT exist in a modern browser! There is no advantage except to malware makers! I can promise the net in general would be far safer without these, and no one anywhere would miss them.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)