Re: Development with IE 7 for non-Windows users.
- From: "Rob ^_^" <iecustomizer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 07:08:55 +1100
Hi Daz,
You hit the nail with "The most used browser in the world". Thats the point.
When developing you have to know your market. Its no use spending 90% of
your development time catering for 10% of the market.
So you have made your personal choices for an operating system and
browser... fair enough.... but Who, What , When, Where and Why? you may ask?
You are now faced with the opposite problem.. you are spending 90% of your
time catering for 80% of the market... trying to code around IE versions on
your non windows development platform. This is by far the biggest slice of
your potential market yet you have choosen a development platform that
caters for the smallest slice.
So is there a strategy forward for you?
Are you going to wait for MS to release a 'fully compliant' browser? I don't
think so. Regardless of 'non-compliance' tag IE IS the most popular browser
(popular may be the wrong word, most used is probably more appropiate) and
there are technical and business reasons why the rollout of a fully
complient IE is difficult, but most importantly there is no return on the
investment for doing so. The only complaintants are developers - market
share 1%.
You will have to decide upon your strategies. You have to ask yourself those
5 questions - who, what, when, where and why.
There is a simple development solution though. The KISS principle - Keep it
Simple/Stupid - avoid fancy styling, actually I think we should all avoid
using server side styling, after all isn't the User King, let the user
decide how they want to see your web pages. Avoid scripting - all browsers
recognise the <a> tag! - Follow the KISS principle and you should be able to
produce pages that will work equally well on all browsers, but regardless of
that you are inviting disaster and embarrasment unless you fully test your
apps on all targeted platforms and browsers. That realy leaves you with no
choice but to get your hands on the additional hardware and software for a
comprehensive testing environment to cater for your target market.
You choice of a development and testing environment should be driven by your
answers to those 5 questions, not your personal preferences. After all are
you in it for fun or for business?
Regards.
"Daz" <cutenfuzzy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1166035661.924338.133360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi everyone.
I am sure this question has already been asked, but I have not yet
found a satisfactory answer myself. I hope that this may turn into a
discussion, as I would like to hear all views on the subject. I am
going to try not to rant, but I am sure the majority of readers will
understand my frustration.
I am currently a newbie web developer. Although, newbie might be an
understatement -- as I have been doing it for about a year and have
managed to complete some very interesting and quite unique projects --
in my eyes I will always be a newbie purely because I am always
learning.
Anyway... I am running Linux, which is my Operating System of choice
from a development perspective, and I have found a great way to install
IE 5, 5.5 and 6, by means of an installer dreamed up and brought to
life by a kind gentleman at http://www.tatanka.com.br/. Naturally, I am
a fan of Firefox. Again, this is my personal preference for what I
believe to be obvious reasons. Although there are times when I feel
like pulling my hair out because IE refuses to do something that
Firefox does happily, it's a lot nicer to have the opportunity to see
how something works (or doesn't work) in the commonly used IE browsers.
The majority of the world's population probably don't even know what
Firefox is, or perhaps lack the understanding of what a browser really
is, and fail to realise that there are others available besides the one
that came with their operating system. I guess what I am getting at is
that it's just something that has to be dealt with by all web
developers, so of course, we have to create our pages with the most
'used' browser in the world, in mind.
Up until now, I have only had a few quarms about having to develop
material to work with a browser that doesn't comply with a lot of the
existing standards/recommendations. Now my greatest concern is what's
going to happen when I want to develop a page and test it on IE7. When
the final version is released into the public domain, it's going to be
something that Windows users will need to validate their Windows
install for, in order to get it, using WGA.
Again, I am trying not to moan here, but I feel that although it's bad
enough that Microsoft have slammed the door on web developers by being
so different from most other browsers, this time they've made it even
worse, by slamming the door with the web developers fingers still in
it! What are non-Windows users meant to do? Are we expected to pay for
IE7 so we can develop web pages that should work with most browsers
anyway, but actually won't work with IE?
Perhaps I am missing something here. Please could someone point it out
if I am? I don't want to bash Microsoft, but I feel this is starting to
get rediculous, and I suspect I am not on my own.
I welcome the views and opinions of other people who might be in the
same position (i.e. a non-Windows user). Also, any advice on how to
develop web pages that work with IE7, only without using IE7, would be
appreciated.
Many thanks.
Daz.
.
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