designing a game website
 

I've been updating my web site and need some advice from more experienced hands. Just two things: progressive Jpegs (the kind that should appear quickly then improve in quality as more data downloads) and Java.

First, are there known issues with progressive Jpegs? I recently increased the file size of my background images. They used to appear progressively, and now they wait until they appear all at once. yet I saved them as progressive. Any ideas?

Second, how many people have Java working on their browser? I have a page that views fine in my copies of Opera, Firefox and Explorer, but my (non-techie) friend cannot see the Java. Are non-Java enabled browsers common?

This page has the Java file. Most of the other pages have large progressive Jpegs.
http://www.lesmisgame.com/crossword/funstuff.html

The jpegs show progressively here. It's probably just a cache thing for you.

Regarding the Java: It shows fine in both Safari and Opera here. (Both right out of the box. I've done nothing special to enable Java on my MacBook.)

Opera for Windows used to have an option to download it with or without Java, with the Java download recommended. I don't know if that's still so, or what the fox does.

Unless I'm mistaken, a Windows computer without Java specifically installed (i.e. a non-techie, probably using IE) will not have much support for Java. I don't remember if current Windows comes with no Java at all, or if it's a very old version, but in either case Java most likely will need to be installed to be used.

Java is very common these days but I still think you should consider making checking if browser can't support and put something on the display. Latest news or something.

Progressive jpgs I've never used but isn't it simply when you pack them choose progressive encoding etc.? If browser can't support progressive ones its their fault ;)

BTW java applet appeared ok and for quick watch seemed to be working correctly. Applet is usually better than some horrible mixed sevrlet or so, applets look always the same 99% sure. Sevrlets might do something weird with different browsers.

We replied same time ;) Ofcourse I've USED progressive JPGs I just don't know much about their differences between diffent encoding methods.

And yes like Trumgottist said Java usually comes with every windows these days. If someone have Windows 1.0 then probably nothing works in it either ;) ...and I tested with Firefox.

I have Java installed, but I tend to surf with it turned off, since it bogs down my computer/connection.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Actually, since XP SP1, Microsoft stopped providing a Java VM.

That's worth knowing. I was thinking of paying money for the "pro" version of the java word game applet, but now I don't think I'll bother. Thanks.

BTW, on the subject of progressive jpegs, what happened to the "lowsrc" tag in html? I just did a few experiments and it does not seem to exist any more. (lowsrc was for loading a low res version while the high res version downloaded)

Something like that was what I was trying to say, but I wasn't too sure about the details, which was why my post was a bit unclear. Thanks for clearing it up.

You could always add a link to Sun. (And Opera.)

Good riddance, I say. On a fast connection, you will hardly notice it anyway, and on a slow connection I'd rather have it finish loading faster than taking longer just to show a low quality image while it's loading. I'm not a big fan of progressive jpeg for the same reason.

I agree. But what scared me was my friend's dial up machine. Most of my pages rely on graphics, but on his machine on dial up he saw nothing at all (apart from some scattered text) for 2 or 3 seconds. 2 or 3 second is an eternity for a web user who is not already interested. Anything is better than nothing.

On the other hand, I decided long ago to only target broadband users, so what do I care what my cheapskate friend thinks? :)

Do people still even use dial-up? (Ok, my grandmother does, but does anyone else?)

HTML has changed a lot recently. Thar be a lot of pages out thar that are no longer even close to being compliant. heh

I know you're mostly interested in using your site to promote your game, but anybody who has a big interest in creating wordsearches, crosswords, etc. should look into WordWiz, which I can recommend quite highly.

It doesn't make interactive Java stuff, only paper-based. But if you can convert the page into PDF, you can let people download it from your site.

The only quibble I have with WordWiz is that it assumes you want an American-style fully checked crossword. But you can make it use a pre-designed grid, so if you want British-style crosswords, all you need to do is build up a library of British grids. (Copy them from puzzle magazines.)

^ I like to use http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/eclipsecrossword/.

What do others think? Would people like this? Personally I almost never print stuff, but I know that a lot of people print a lot. And crosswords are great for sitting down with a printed version, not typing on a screen. What is normal here? What do you think?