Quote:
Originally Posted by synth3tk
Somewhat off-topic and partially humorous, but I got soooo pissed trying to fix this one issue in Internet Explorer (which came down to a CMS module that IE didn't like) that I wrote this webpage and redirected all IE users to it until I solved the problem. I still have no clue what exact line of code caused it, but I'm not too worried over it.
I received a lot of "lolz" from this page.
http://weareevil.net/sorry-ie-user.html
Back on-topic, what determines what the standard browser is? Some panel of judges who vote for it bi-annually? An unbiased corporation? I mean, if it's really up to the users, then as web developers, couldn't we somehow bring it to their attention? Not like forcing users to a separate webpage or anything, but subtle things such as a notice or message on our websites. Maybe making a campaign to convert people to another browser, or at the very least, upgrade to a newer version of IE. I understand the corporations who have hundreds, even thousands, of computers, and if I were in the IT's shoes, I certainly wouldn't want to be the one upgrading all of those computers and fixing applications that depend on IE6.
But consumers have a choice. |
Ok, I'll bite here, that page, while funny is unprofessional. I assume this was for a personal website and not representing your team. You still have to be careful, if your name is attached to it this could come back to bite you years from now. Ok, enough of that...
Standard browser is probably the one that has the largest market share, in this case it is probably the browser that comes with ~90% of the new computers in the world, Internet Explorer. And don't think that browser ignorance is a problem only for Windows users. I know plenty of people who use the phrase, "Let me open the internet" when they click on the icon for Safari. When you ask them what version of Internet Explorer they are running they will adamantly tell you they don't use that program they just browse the internet. So, sadly, the average person defines the "Standard" browser. We just have to deal with it.
Now, what makes IE 6 such a horrid browser? It is not standards compliant, the standards for HTML are defined by a group called the World Wide Web Consortium (
W3C). You can test your browsers to see how compliant they are by using a series of tests called the ACID Tests (available
here)
My suggestion to everyone would be to use some sort of testing system (
http://browsershots.org/) is among the top google hits. Obviously this only helps with layout bugs, there is a similar (not free) service for testing javascript (google cross browser testing). Always validate your code and allow your users to give you feedback, if they see a bug you might have missed (very likely) let them tell you! Trust me, it is much better to get a product good enough and on time than perfect and way over budget.