"F" == Frank A Ellis {w3uhf at hotmail dot com} writes:

F My name is Frank A. Ellis W3UHF, and I am the owner/webmaster for
F www.icomclassic.com. I appreciate all the comments regarding the
F site's navigation menu, which is based on javascript. Those with
F browsers not configured properly for javascript will indeed see only
F the "front page" and be left with the impression that the site is one
F layer deep. As others of you have posted here, the site is most
F definitely more than one layer deep! I currently have about 200 html
F pages associated with the site and over 100 mb of graphics supporting
F those pages.

OK, I am CC'ing to comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html
as they might have more words of advice than my "see anybrowser.org"
and "you are risking search engines not being able to spider your site
as effectively".

F When I put this site together, the initial goal was to get it up
F quickly with a maximum degree of operability. My inital choice of a
F javascript menu was driven by the fact that projected menu depths
F would be 6 to 7 layers deep, with perhaps dozens of selections at each
F level. A simple HTML menu would obviously work with 100% of browsers,
F whether being MS based (IE, Mozilla, NN, Opera) or the *nix variants
F (Mozilla, Galeon, NN, Opera, Konqueror, and others)but the problem
F with an HTML menu this large is the amount of real estate it takes
F up. A flyout type menu with multi-leveled layers is the most efficient
F way to handle this problem, if one does not want to have secondary
F (and deeper) menu selections on dedicated HTML pages selected from the
F main menu (which I don't want).

A HTML total sitemap on one page accessible from the first page should
be added as an interim measure.

F To make a long story short, the initial javascript menu was a good
F choice and will work "out-of-the-box" with MSIE and most other
F browsers that have javascript configured properly. There are still

By the way, as there are many blind radio users, I would make sure my
site works with lynx too, everything accessible to the maximum extent
possible.

F issues with some browsers, especially under Linux, which have been
F mostly corrected in the latest distros of Linux, leading me to believe
F that the incompatibilities are rooted more in the particular Linux
F distro, and not the javascript menu at the site. For instance, I could
F never view the site's menu under RedHat 8.3 and Mozilla, but since
F recently upgrading to RH9 all is well. I use both WinXP and RedHat
F Linux, and really do attempt to make the site as compatible as
F possible across as many browser platforms as possible, while some
F others get their sites to play under MSIE only, then stop optimizing.

F I have been in the process of re-coding the site, incorporating both a
F new look and feel, in addition to a new menuing system. For a peek,
F take a look at: www.icomclassic.com/development. There are some sample

Indeed, the menus finally work for me there. However there is still
horizontal scrolling needed at some resolutions, and your white text
on black background habit is tough on the eyes in my browser (yes, one
can manually override it).

F pages here for testing the new menuing system. The new javascript menu
F has been specially designed for MSIE and *nix based browsers as well,
F and the few inconsistencies that are based in different browsers'
F implementation of javascript now "fail gracefully", meaning the that
F in problem browsers, new menu will load and work, although certain
F artifacts such as shadow edges may not display or may be the wrong
F grayscale shade. Opera (both MS and *nix flavors) seems to have the
F most amount of inconsistency in handling javascript.

Anyways, there are more basic things to attend to first:
$ validate http://www.icomclassic.com/development/
*** Errors validating http://www.icomclassic.com/development/: ***
Line 1, character 1: missing document type declaration; assuming HTML 4.01...
See http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/