A note on site navigation

As of April, 2021, the desktop version (with screen wider than 1200 pixels) of this site uses content switchingin subsections to make page navigation more responsive and to preserve users' settings. Each page in these areas has both a full page and a reduced version with top banner menus and the TOC (table of contents) links on the left pane removed. Content switching means updating the varying contents (the middle pane) without loading the whole page.

With this scheme, the banner menus will trigger a full page load as before, while the left-hand side TOC pane links and the navigation arrows at the top of the middle pane will just update the middle pane contents without repainting the other parts. This makes the update faster and reduces flickering.

A negative consequence of this is the URL in the web browser's address bar not showing the correct address of the changed content -- that is, the address will stay unchanged even after the contents have updated. While this does not pose a problem in browsing, it may be an issue if you want to bookmark a page, for instance, as it will capture an earlier page address (the one in the address bar) before the change. To remedy this, the browser's Reload function has been augmented to reset the page address to the page currently being shown. This is a slow operation, though, because the browser first loads the old contents in its cache before it resets to the new page, so it should be used sparingly. Additionally, you will also encounter an additional page when you go from a normal full page to a content-switched page using the browser's Back and Forward button for history navigation.

In summary, to move navigate pages, please use the left pane's TOC links or middle pane's navigation arrows as much as possible, as they work the most efficiently. If you need a correct URL in the address bar, reload the page first to update the address before the intended operation.