Prevent js alert() from pausing timers

Question

So I made some timers for a quiz. The thing is, I just realized when I put

javascript: alert(\"blah\");

in the address, the popup alert bo

Answer 1

I think the question asker is trying to prevent cheating. Since a user can type javascript: alert("paused"); into the address bar, or make a bookmarklet to do that, it's easy to pause the quiz and cheat.

The only thing I can think of is to use Date() to get the current time, and check it again when the timer fires. Then if the time difference is not reasonably close to the intended timer duration, show an admonishment and disqualify the answer to that question or let them flunk the quiz. There is no way to prevent the user from pausing your quiz, but it should be possible to catch them.

Of course with any cheat-proofing, you motivate people to become better cheaters. A person could change the system time on their PC, and fool the javascript Date() constructor which gets the time from the operating system.

You can use an interval to do a repeated clock comparison against a one second interval length. The interval handler can also update a time-remaining field on the user's display. Then the users can feel the pressure build as time runs out on their quiz. Fun times!