>> DESIRE:http://www.surfnet.nl/surfnet/projects/desire/
>
>I have looked at this web page, and their logo is (I think) an animated
>gif (http://www.surfnet.nl/surfnet/projects/desire/desirelogo.gif). This
>thing has been set to loop back, re-loading itself when it reaches the
>end of an animated sequence. I presume it's not re-loading a network copy
>each time, but the damn thing is still at it, thrashing my hard disk in
>the background even as I write this.
>
>Am I alone in finding this an objectionable, even un-acceptable bit of
>web practice?
When I first discovered them, I along with others thought they were "cute".
I did not understand at the time why Netscape could not cache the thing in
memory, rather than thrashing the disk all the time.
However, as the abuse set in (ie I think that if they are to be used at all,
their max size should be no more than 100 pixels square) I have become
entirely convinced that a) they should be used very sparingly
b) Netscape's implementation is broken and c) semantic implementations are
far better. Thus on the CLIC home page
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/clic/
we have replaced our animated GIF of a molecule with a "real virtual one".
It turns out this is a) about 10 times SMALLER in the file size that
needs transmission, b) rotation can be switched off using a menu or
controlled by the mouse
c) The user can save the data in the image, and re-use it if they wish,
d) the content can be indexed, whereas GIFS cannot.
The down side is that one does need a special plug-in, whereas
animated GIFs a) do not need special software and b) degrade gracefully
to a static GIF.
On balance, I would no longer recommend their use. That means of course
that we will see far more of them in the future!! To some extent, I
also classify e.g. Shockwave animations in the same category, although
here the user can have a bit more control (if the author of the shockwave
animation lets them).
Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY;
[log in to unmask]; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804.
URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0)
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