WINTER INSTITUTE BROWSER
COMPATIBILITY PRESENTATION
C.T. Evans
Why even ask a question about browsers and web page design?
Sizing Up the
Browsers: "Unfortunately, the browser makers have been naughty, so the rules aren't
simple. Each Web browser has its own playing field with its own quirks. If we don't get to
know every one of these playing fields, then our pages might very well look crappy in some
browser." This particular article covers issues such as offset, canvas size,
text size (often depends on platforms) and form elements (such as radio buttons or text boxes).
Might want to read
Will Browsers Ever Not Suck? by Jeffrey Veen.
BroWWWsers
by Alan Richmond: "The "browser wars" and subsequent differentiation between the proprietary
versions of HTML, often very different from the W3C's specifications, is too well-known to need elaboration
here. Suffice it to say that a Lack of standards makes websites more expensive for clients and
developers, makes pages break for users, and will break the web itself,
unless the situation improves."
Why bother with consideration of browsers when designing a web page?
HTML
Standards Compliance--Why Bother? by Alan Richmond:
Some people take the view that checking their pages in the two major
browsers is validation though. Close, but no cigar. There are still dialect variants even within a
single make of browser, across the different versions and platforms - let alone between the two. And
why neglect all the other user agents such as text-mode browsers, text to speech synthesizers, search
engine spiders and other robots, site analysis tools, etc.? Perhaps, because it's too much extra work? Maybe,
but most of the compliance errors I've seen are trivial to fix, e.g. missing ALT attributes (not tags!) in
IMG tags. Others might be harder to understand and fix but practice overcomes this, and in the end
your "inner satisfaction" is in knowing that you've done a good professional job that can be appreciated by all."
There are many different browsers,
check www.stars.com/Software/Browsers/, part
of the Web Developers Virtual Library, "including pwWebSpeak [which] is a non-visual,
speaking internet browser for the visually disabled, learning disabled, and users who desire interaction with
the web without being tethered to a visual display
How do you avoid browsers problems when designing a web page?
In general, to avoid browser problems, follow sound web site design
principles, such as these from www.anybrowser.com:
- Use Advanced features Sparingly. Don't use a feature just because it's
there for you to use. For instance, don't use Frames (bordered areas of a browser window that can
function as independent mini-browsers in their own right) when an ordinary table will do. Framed
pages can be deathly slow.
- Likewise, don't use Forms for free-form text or as a substitute for
e-mail. They're a great way to let readers place orders, fill out questionnaires and reply to you with
formatted information, but it's no fun typing running text into a small, vanilla Web window.
- Before you build a site that requires a browser extension or plug-in/add-in,
know that at best, many of your site visitors will have to download and install the plug-in/add-in before
they can use your site. At worst, with a browser-specific plug-in/add-in, many of your visitors won't be
able to access your site at all.
- Your safest bet is to be browser-neutral wherever possible. Even
today, something like 30 percent of visitors to public sites don't use Netscape - and that percentage is
growing. If you do use a proprietary add-in/plug-in, provide a viable alternative for people with
other browsers.
Check your work with a "validator," such as
www.anybrowser.com/W3CValidator.htm or
www.chami.com/html-kit/.
What about "two camps" of browser web design advocates?
In a famous "old"
article (Browserism, part of
the WebHome Improvement site, the authors divided web page creators into roughly two
groups: the browserists and the anti-browserists.
"Browserists believe that trying to
make a web page for nine or ten different browsers is almost impossible,
and very limiting. They argue that since 83% of the population uses Microsoft
Internet Explorer or Netscape, it is perfectly okay to assume that these
are the only two browsers in existence (iWORLD). They are nice about it,
in that they add a small disclaimer to the effect of "This page is best
viewed by Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape," so that someone using
another browser will know why the page looks awful. They usually even provide
links to places where the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer can
be downloaded, so the user can replace his inferior software.
For a browserist, it's the enhancements,
and not the actual content of the page, that make it a good page. In essence,
image is everything.
To a browserist, text doesn't really
matter anyway. It's just the stuff that goes between the graphics.
Yet another problem with images is that
as many as 30% of users with browsers that support images have actually
disabled the capability to view them (Sullivan). Anti-browserists contend
that it is after all hypertext markup language, and text is the most important
part. If the page doesn't provide any information, it is useless. Written
language was developed several thousand years ago as a means of conveying
information that was superior to pictographs, and written language is still
viewed as the most efficient way to convey information, at least by the
anti- browserists.
Anti-browserists like their text because
it doesn't eat up a lot of bandwidth and it is simple. They prefer to stick
to the standard colors for a number of reasons. When text is the focus
of a web page, designing for several different browsers actually becomes
quite simple. What make pages look different on different browsers is the
way images are placed and loaded, and what features are supported.
What about some examples of browser compatibility problems?
First, one might think that the real issue of "browser compatibility" these days
is only for those working with dhtml (or Active X) or CGI/Javascript/Java, XML, CSS, forms or
databases, and for those of us just using html, or an html editor, it is less of an issue. By the
way, there is a reference
Browser Chart available for these larger issues. But, that is not always the case as
these following simple examples show:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
Example 7
Example 8
Example 9
Don Goral's MTH 151 home page
Jud's HIS 122 home page
Aggie's web design center
Diane's ENG 115 course
Charlie's Versailles menu page
|
