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**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 21, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428 "2002-03-21T22:31:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 2
**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/21 "2002-03-25T22:46:01Z")
I think galt is saying:
```auto
```
At least, I hope that is what he is saying, because it works.
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**Author:**  [@OneChance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneChance)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/22 "2002-03-25T22:54:43Z")
**erislover** , now I see what he was referring to exactly. Although that does work, it appears that some browsers append a question mark to the URL after the button is clicked. Usually not a problem, I suppose.
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**Author:**  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/23 "2002-03-25T23:18:32Z")
Strange how the KISS Principle seems to be forgotten here. đ
Sure one can use a FORM to create an ordinary link. But why do it? Just because you can? If anything, this smacks more of ego wanking than quality, tight code. Code bloat is a serious problem in and of itself. So why contribute to it, even on such a small scale? Seems to me if you are going to create extra work for yourself in one area, you will probably do it in other areas of the site, too.
In addition, you also raise a red flag for intelligent surfers who see a FORM action (the submit button) without any actual form fill-in-the-blanks. For me, I would be viewing the source code to see if Iâm about to send hidden data someplace without my knowledge or permission.
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**Author:**  [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/24 "2002-03-25T23:29:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Duckster \*
> \*\*Strange how the KISS Principle seems to be forgotten here. đ
>
> Sure one can use a FORM to create an ordinary link. But why do it? \*\*
I already answered that.
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Lance Turbo re: javascript onclick event handler_
> \*\*The drawback of this is that it may not work on browserâs with javascript diabled. \*\*
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**Author:**  [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/25 "2002-03-26T02:54:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Duckster \*
> \*\*Strange how the KISS Principle seems to be forgotten here. đ
>
> Sure one can use a FORM to create an ordinary link. But why do it? Just because you can? If anything, this smacks more of ego wanking than quality, tight code. Code bloat is a serious problem in and of itself. So why contribute to it, even on such a small scale? Seems to me if you are going to create extra work for yourself in one area, you will probably do it in other areas of the site, too.
>
> In addition, you also raise a red flag for intelligent surfers who see a FORM action (the submit button) without any actual form fill-in-the-blanks. For me, I would be viewing the source code to see if Iâm about to send hidden data someplace without my knowledge or permission. \*\*
This is not an issue of âcode bloatâ or âtight codeâ (the code in the browser to handle form submissions is certainly at least as efficient as the code to start up a javascript interpreter for a single frickinâ assignment statement), and for your information, when the original requirement is âhow do I use a button like a link on an html pageâ then itâs **eminently** appropriate to use a form. You want to fake it with something that looks like a button but isnât? Fine, but donât be surprised when your buttons look and act funny under certain circumstances, confusing the user.
In addition, intelligent surfers know that it doesnât take a visible form button to submit a form, so whether or not what youâre clicking on is obviously a button, hidden fields may exist. Buttons donât indicate form data is being sent, and the lack of buttons doesnât indicate that itâs not. [behold](http://www.codsquad.com/~galt/hiddenform.html)
And finally, using javascript and/or CGI when itâs not necessary is hardly the KISS principle. Sometimes when someone asks âhow do I do X?â the simplest answer is âlike thisâ, not âwell hereâs a way to do something that kind of looks like X but forces you to learn a new technology and/or just copy and paste without understanding it.â
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**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/26 "2002-03-26T03:33:28Z")
Wow, this thread got fucking preachy.
There are many ways to make link buttons. We listed them. Let **Fenris** decide what he wants.
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**Author:**  [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/27 "2002-03-26T04:01:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by erislover \*
> \*\*Wow, this thread got fucking preachy.
>
> There are many ways to make link buttons. We listed them. Let **Fenris** decide what he wants. \*\*
grumble. tell that to the guy throwing around terms like âcode bloatâ and âego wankingâ while providing wrong answers.
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**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-help-buttons-that-link-and-the-people-who-want-them/99428/28 "2002-03-26T15:33:44Z")
I was đ
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