FAQ Topic - How can I see in javascript if a web browser accepts cookies?

[Evertjan.]

Randy Webb wrote on 15 dec 2006 in comp.lang.javascript:

Evertjan. said the following on 12/15/2006 3:56 AM: [...]

No, Randy, our European endless stupidity is only surpassed by the
American counterpart.

[essential part skipped by Randy]

Let's see here. Europe has had millennia of experience writing
languages yet there are how many different languages spoken in Europe?

Yes, and that is a joy!

In endless centuries they haven't come up with a single language yet
Americans are stupid yet they have one single language.

Indeed, you could easily say so and could certainly be right!

Having one single language does not preclude stupidity.
Sending vehicles into space where inches and centimeters are mixed up,
because you think that mixing up is not possible with one single
language, is an excellent example of stupidity.

How intuitive....

Should it be intuitive? Why?

And no less, to say that the European Computer Manufacturers
Association language specification should be written in Europe is
"intelligent"?

Did I say that? I don't remember.
Stupidity without intelligence cannot even exist.

If you are from the States and think that "endless stupidity" can be
surpassed, as I said, you could just have proved my point.

;-) ;-) ;-)

 

[John G Harris]

Americans are stupid yet they have one single language.

<snip>

Spanish, Pennsylvania Dutch, Choctaw, Navaho, French, Creole, Inuit,
Hawaiian, ... , and a dialect of English with deliberately different
spelling.

John

 

[Randy Webb]

VK said the following on 12/15/2006 12:44 PM:

To protect the reputation of the old FAQ version:

"protect the reputation"? There is nothing in the FAQ that needs to be
"protected" for the sake of its reputation. If something is wrong, then
its wrong and needs to be corrected.

navigator.cookieEnabled check couldn't be suggested in the previous
version, because this property originally was IE-only.

That is *not* why it isn't suggested. Then or now. It is not in there
now because it is not reliable and won't do what is needed to find out
if a browser accepts cookies or not.

As a universal method (still in use on many servers as
script-independent) is indeed write cookie / read it back.

And does it not occur to you that the reason that method is used is
because it is reliable?

A very important part was missing though in the FAQ: "write cookie on one
page, read cookie from *another* page". Only this way you can tell if a
web browser accepts cookies *for the given domain*, and this is the
question one really may want to know. An abstract "if a web browser
accepts cookies" has not much of sense but can be left for readability.

There is something missing alright, but in the spirit of a friendly
conversation I won't repeat what it is that you are missing.

 

[Michael Winter]

In comp.lang.javascript message
<[email protected]>, Thu, 14 Dec 2006
[snip]

The table at the end of "Resolutions of new Date()"
<http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/js-dates.htm#Ress> is positioned
oddly to the right causing a horizontal scrollbar. Again, in
Firefox.

I see no obvious reason.

The problem is quite clear: the containing div element (which is surely
unnecessary) is assigned an explicit width of 1em. This isn't even close
to an appropriate width (25em is closer) so the table overflows the div
element and extends to the right. As the latter is floated right, this
places the table mostly off the right-hand side of the viewport.

[snip]

Mike

 

[Dr J R Stockton]

In comp.lang.javascript message <[email protected]
er.co.uk>, Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:10:50, Michael Winter

In comp.lang.javascript message
<[email protected]>, Thu, 14 Dec 2006
[snip]

The table at the end of "Resolutions of new Date()"
<http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/js-dates.htm#Ress> is positioned
oddly to the right causing a horizontal scrollbar. Again, in
Firefox.

I see no obvious reason.

The problem is quite clear: the containing div element (which is surely
unnecessary) is assigned an explicit width of 1em. This isn't even
close to an appropriate width (25em is closer) so the table overflows
the div element and extends to the right. As the latter is floated
right, this places the table mostly off the right-hand side of the
viewport.

In IE6, and almost certainly IE4, that 1em has the (wanted) effect of
making the table as narrow as possible (forcing line-breaks in
elements), but leaves the right-hand edge aligned with the right
paragraph margin (also wanted). I've now used <br> for the breaks and
moved the rest of the style into <form ... >.

Thanks. I'll look out for any similar cases, but they're not obvious in
IE.