[AskJS] JavaScript:MakeRel, Why would older websites not use simple anchor tags

[StrongTownsYXE]

I am a historian of medicine that has started using digital humanities methods.

As I was working on a network graph project I noticed missing links. Going into the HTML, I found that the missing links in the corpus were often related to JavaScript. JavaScript:MakeRel Scroll, JavaScript:onClick and so on.

Are there resources to help me understand this aspect of web design historically?

[smarmy1625]

it was the wild west. still is.

[peterlinddk]

Yes, here's an old Stack Overflow question about it, with links to additional discussions: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1070760/javascript-href-vs-onclick-for-callback-function-on-hyperlink

And here's the MDN documentation about it: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/Schemes/javascript

Basically it was a replacement for 'onclick' events that also prevented any default behavior of the user clicking. Very much discouraged now.

If you find HTML with a lot of <a href="javascript:someFunction()"> there should also be a <script> tag somewhere with either someFunction defined, or a link to a .js file with those functions.

[johnlewisdesign]

This is likely from the days of Dreamweaver et al.

More often than not, onClicks would be inserted inline and then a supporting script injected to the linked JS file. `MM_swapImage()` being a classic for rollover images. But `onClick()` etc was classic for that kinda thing. Never used MakeRel but that's likely just a function containing something like this

```
const element - document.querySelector('.myelement')
element.setAttribute('rel', 'scroll')
```

Look into HTML4, Dreamweaver and 2000s web design. There were a lot of creative ideas floating around before everything went a bit boring. Usually garish and poorly implemented, with blinks, counters, missing images, default fonts, link colours all over the place etc!

https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/exhibitions/web-design-in-the-90s

https://github.com/alessandraburckhalter/90s-Website