It should be noted that Martin's actually talking about getting strong enough with CSS to understand when you'll need certain workarounds, what styles will work when and port across to other browsers, etc. He's also bringing up understanding of Standards (ref: http://print.google.com/print?id=RBtltKDulrcC&prev=http://print.google.c om/print%3Fq%3Djeffrey%2Bzeldman&pg=1&sig=yKmjRKvg-LB3bsO5Yg4DBoEP4Ow "Designing with Web Standards" by Jeffrey Zeldman), and I think the approach is a little pie in the sky.
Ultimately, he's mostly correct, but to be fair, not entirely and I don't want to turn this into an argument/back and forth discussion--but everthing that you need to do will have a lot of factors, such as complexity, skill sets of other developers, etc. While XHTML & CSS standards (per Zeldman, at least) are an absolutely phenominal notion, I do not believe that their usage is entirely something logical in the marketplace as of yet--but that doesn't mean we shouldn't all strive to understand better, it just means that the likelyhood of finding yourself in a project that works that way would be rather.. Diminished. And yes, the argument is there for cost savings, etc. but the first time you find yourself spending 2 days trying to make something work across browsers using only XHTML and CSS when you could have performed the same task with a table in 2 minutes... Well, let's just say that the cost benefit starts to also... Diminish. It's a noble effort and a great, great idea and it's great to have people driving for it, but until these types of standards become mainstream and we're all learning them as fundamentals, getting there will be slow going. But please, take my comments with a grain of salt. I've found that there are many things you can do by knowing standards better to improve development--even if you don't use them 100%. At the same time, take anyone else's comment with a grain of salt that promise you all of this--but wait, there's more! If you call in now, you'll also get this great knife that can cut through aluminum cans--and more. Simply put, it's just not all the way there, but getting another person on board always helps. Russ > -----Original Message----- > From: Martin Parry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 6:49 AM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: RE: [SOT] Supporting multiple browsers and versions > > > Using CSS for site layout is one sure fire way of making sure > your sites > look consistent across most browsers.. If you use DreamWeaver > and have a > bit of time to get your head around CSS layouts then create a new page > using the CSS template and see how it hangs together - basically all > done with DIV's. I dipped my toe in the water the other day, > created my > first CSS only site and was stunned when trying it in each > browser that > it looked IDENTICAL !! > > Another by product of doing things this way was that when I tested the > site using the W3C CSS and html validator it got a perfect score. > Superb! > > As far as any JavaScript stuff goes, I agree with > "ColdFusionDeveloper" > (the man with no name) - Try it in a non-ie browser first > then fiddle to > get it working in that later. I love using document.all (saves using > getElementByID) but it just ain't available in other mainline > browsers. > > Search engines and accessibility tools such as screen readers for > partially sighted users benefit from using CSS too as there's > no masses > of nested tables to confuse the issue. > > Martin Parry > Macromedia Certified Developer > http://www.BeetrootStreet.co.uk > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave Merrill [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 05 February 2005 12:42 > To: CF-Talk > Subject: [SOT] Supporting multiple browsers and versions > > I've been doing intranet work for a while now, where the only > browser we > had > to support was the one that came installed on company PCs. Have recent > IE's > oddities pretty well dealt with, but looking at the wider world, I'm > wondering how folks manage development for multiple browsers. I'm > thinking > about relatively small shops that don't have enormous > resources devoted > solely to QA. > > Specifically... > > - Do you serve different style sheets or pages depending on > the browser > and > version? How many? > > - Are you coding to W3C standards? Which one(s)? How much does that > actually > help your pages be more universally compatible? > > - What's an accurate, up to date source of info on html, css, and js > capabilities and quirks for a lot of different browsers and versions? > > - It doesn't appear that you can have multiple versions of IE > installed > on > the same machine. If you have to support them, do you actually have > separate > machines whose only purpose is to be equipped with IE 4, 5, > and 6, maybe > even 3? How else can you test? > > - Do you have mac, linux and pc browser test machines? > > - For general public sites, what do you consider a reasonable list of > browsers and versions that you need to support? > > Dave Merrill > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:193176 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
