How many browsers 2 chk?

[djeet]

My question is when V make a site how many browsers should one keep in mind. I test on IE, Firefox and Netscape 8.0
Should I also use Opera and Safari.

[Charles]

Check as many as you can, but especially Lynx and a hand held. And web TV would be a good idea as well. You want to go for browsers with very different ways of doing things.

[MstrBob]

To that end, I really don't see the need to check in Netscape. I don't, I don't have a copy of Netscape. The amount of Netscape users I get amounts to a fraction of a percentage point, but the main reason I don't bother is that Netscape uses either IE's Trident rendering engine or Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine (depending on the users' choice) so it's generally covered. I'd recommend for a bare minimum to test in:

IE 5
IE 6
Firefox
Lynx
Opera
Safari and/or Konqueror

Also, try viewing your website with Stylesheets and Scripting disabled. This is pretty quick to do in Firefox or Opera, so that you get an idea of what a graphical browser will do without styling/scripting. Also test in Lynx, as Charles said. In addition to giving you a picture of what textual browser users will see, you will have a better idea of how an audio browser will work, and what a search engine spider will see.

[JPnyc]

Ff and Netscrape may both use gecko, but I don't think it's the exact same version of the engine. I've seen them render differently, albeit on very rare occasions. For example, a user on another forum can't get the vbulletin dropdowns to function in FF, yet they do for him with netscrape on the same machine.

[MstrBob]

Ff and Netscrape may both use gecko, but I don't think it's the exact same version of the engine. I've seen them render differently, albeit on very rare occasions. For example, a user on another forum can't get the vbulletin dropdowns to function in FF, yet they do for him with netscrape on the same machine.

The only real differences is that Netscape 8 uses Gecko 1.7, the engine that Firefox 1.0 used. Other than that, they haven't changed the rendering engine.

[JPnyc]

Well mozilla changed it some time ago. Once netscrape went public with it's source, mozilla took it, improved it, and then Netscrape began using Mozilla's version of it's own engine.

[MstrBob]

Well mozilla changed it some time ago. Once netscrape went public with it's source, mozilla took it, improved it, and then Netscrape began using Mozilla's version of it's own engine.

Yes, yes. You see, Firefox 1.0 used Gecko 1.7. AOL saw the success of Firefox, and decided to capitalize it. They had the puny Netscape development team use that engine, and also enabled the use of Trident. Firefox has since moved on, and Firefox 1.5 uses Gecko 1.8. Netscape 8 still uses Gecko 1.7. The main differences are really under the hood between 1.7 and 1.8, but the important part for us developers are some CSS 3 fixes and SVG implementation.

To that end, the javascript problem you are having, if it's the one from before, is more of an anomoly than any real differences between Firefox 1.0 and Netscape 8.

[JPnyc]

Well there were issues with the dropdown in 1.0 and now FF users aren't complaining about it. But this one netscrape user is. So it's a logical supposition that it has something to do with the different engine.

[MstrBob]

Well there were issues with the dropdown in 1.0 and now FF users aren't complaining about it. But this one netscrape user is. So it's a logical supposition that it has something to do with the different engine.

I'm more inclined to think it's a cache issue or interference with some toolbar or another. Perhaps a security setting? The engines are the same.

[russell]

also valid to check with various platforms if u can get your hands on 'em or a friend to check for u.

check MacOs, Linux, WinXP, Win2k

[djeet]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

[WebJoel]

....And web TV would be a good idea as well. ...

I have several friends in the States whom uses WEBtv (one of whom is partially paralyzed from the shoulders down), -so this is particularly meaningful to me and it pleases me to see others considering the need for WEBtv inclusion.

I know for instance, that WEBtv can only display two font-faces, -Helvetica and Monaco I think. Be sure to always include at least Helvetica in any font-face declaration as a 'fall-back' font. You know, -font-family:arial, helvetica, serif;
There are more 'WEBtv must-do's, but this is the one that I find easiest to remember.

-Joel

[Charles]

I have several friends in the States whom uses WEBtv (one of whom is partially paralyzed from the shoulders down), -so this is particularly meaningful to me and it pleases me to see others considering the need for WEBtv inclusion.

I know for instance, that WEBtv can only display two font-faces, -Helvetica and Monaco I think. Be sure to always include at least Helvetica in any font-face declaration as a 'fall-back' font. You know, -font-family:arial, helvetica, serif;
There are more 'WEBtv must-do's, but this is the one that I find easiest to remember.

-JoelYears ago I maintained a site for a congregation and watching the logs I noted a frequent visitor with WebTV. She was a dear, old lady and her children had gotten her WebTV. The one "must don't" that I remember, and one that you wouldn't pick up using the simulator, is to not use a white background. TV screens are very much more bright and black lettering on white is hard to read.

That same web site is now maintained by somebody else and sure enough they scrapped everything that I had done and implimented a white background.

( http://www.saintjohns.ang-md.org/ )

[djeet]

Charles, can U pls show the site U had made.
And for others, thanks. Now i know there are loads of things to keep in mind when making a site.

[Kravvitz]

Here's an interesting article on this subject. (http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=BrowserStats)