Forum Moderators: phranque
I've been asked by a guy who has a total flash site to redevelop it using DHTML.
I've been searching all kinds of posts and for the most part, I've found that people use DHTML as shorthand when referring to a dynamic site developed using html, css and a scripting language (e.g., javascript).
HOWEVER, I just talked to a guy in the business for many years who referred to it as a Microsoft product that's terrible and outmoded and works with ActiveX Controls, blah, blah, blah and he would never use it.
So now I'm just confused. Is it a general term or an actual language/or product?
I don't want to sound like an idiot when talking to this potential client.
Thanks so much for any feedback. Urgently needed.
Anyway, as phranque said, it's not a language but a collection of different techniques used to build a dynamic site. I find people use the term most often when they describe a site that behaves dynamically but doesn't use a database. I much prefer php myself.
I just talked to a guy in the business for many years who referred to it as a Microsoft product
He would be wrong.
I don't understand how people manage to adopt and adhere to false concepts, hold to them dearly over a number of years, and broadcast them as gospel.
My "definition" is pretty close to the one on Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org]:
Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (such as CSS), and the Document Object Model.
Think of "DHTML" as the "old buzzword" that is now replaced by the "new buzzword", "Web 2.0." These two terms have little to do with each other other than the people who use them most know the least about what they really are (as the previous example demonstrates.)
Any output that changes based on an environmental or user input as a variable is Dynamic HTML. This can be as simple as a browser identification or complex as generating a customized page interface based on a cookie.
Microsoft does have some tools that can represent DHTML, but most of them are proprietary - they only work in M.S. browsers. But they certainly don't "own" the idea and didn't invent it.
Update: the client, as you might imagine, was using the term just to refer generally to a dynamic website.
All cool. Thanks.
