Cross-Browser Compatibility - Pollster Time

[jjbarnone]

Hi All,

Ok, here goes an age old question. I'd like to get some input from all of you guys and gals. I'm making some new pages using strict xhtml and css2 with a very very small splash of javascript and PHP5 here and there. I'm developing most of the pages with divs/css layouts utilizing a table-less layout concept.

When I go to test my pages at cross-browser compatibility sites my pages render pretty good for the most part - especially in Firefox 2 and 3 and Internet Exploder 7 and 8. It's kind of hit or miss with IE 6 and definitely with earlier versions of IE depending on the code/page I'm working on. Safari, Opera, Chrome, and some of the others are also hit or miss it seems.

My question is this - how much backward compatibility is recommended for web pages? Should I go as far back as IE 5 compatibility or are most people updating their browsers to Firefox 3, IE 7/8, and so on? Gees, update yer freakin browsers once in a while man...

Thanks for the input...

[Delan]

In 2009 (IMO):
Firefox: 1.5+
Opera: 8+
Safari: 2+
Chrome: 2+
Internet Explorer: 6+

There is no need to go below 6. 5 and below represent a very small proportion of Internet users. IE 6 is a pain to code for, but support it for another couple of years, then go for 7 and above only.

By the way, if you want IE 6 to render in Standards mode with proper box model and not in Quirks/IE Box mode, and you're using XHTML, do NOT put an XML prologue

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

Although it's good practice, don't put it yet, because IE 6 will automatically fall to Quirks with this line. Just use a DOCTYPE. If you put this XML prologue, IE 6 will render with its stupid box model, if not, it will use the nice W3C "usable width/usable height" specification.

[maneetpuri]

Hi All,

Ok, here goes an age old question. I'd like to get some input from all of you guys and gals. I'm making some new pages using strict xhtml and css2 with a very very small splash of javascript and PHP5 here and there. I'm developing most of the pages with divs/css layouts utilizing a table-less layout concept.

When I go to test my pages at cross-browser compatibility sites my pages render pretty good for the most part - especially in Firefox 2 and 3 and Internet Exploder 7 and 8. It's kind of hit or miss with IE 6 and definitely with earlier versions of IE depending on the code/page I'm working on. Safari, Opera, Chrome, and some of the others are also hit or miss it seems.

My question is this - how much backward compatibility is recommended for web pages? Should I go as far back as IE 5 compatibility or are most people updating their browsers to Firefox 3, IE 7/8, and so on? Gees, update yer freakin browsers once in a while man...

Thanks for the input...

Hi,

You need to make some changes to the CSS to make it compatible with IE6. And computability with just one less version is perfectly fine as the general tendency of the internet users is to keep upgrading the browsers to have good experience of latest websites being developed and uses the tools offered in the toolbars that are being developed for the browsers. So if you are able to make your website run fine on IE 6 and above, Firefox 2 and above then you are ensuring that maximum number of users being able to browse your website properly.

Maneet Puri
Web Design Services (http://www.lexolutionit.com/services.php)

[Delan]

By the way, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera should almost always render the same as they are all relatively standards-compliant (a million times better than IE/Trident... well that's another story)

[Declan1991]

If you are planning to support IE 6, 7 and 8, I would strongly suggest you use HTML Strict, because you are serving incorrect markup to all of your users, and the majority aren't even getting the possible benefits because it's being parsed as HTML always.

[Charles]

Well, if you are interested in compatibility you shouldn't be using XHTML. But since you are using PHP you might as well do things right. Send XHTML pages to those browsers that report that they accept it, XML with an XML to HTML XSLT stylesheet to those browsers that report that they accept XML and HTML to the rest. And you can make that HTML on the fly by applying that same stylesheet server side. Then your little MSIE problem with the XML declaration goes away.

And add to the list of browsers to support, Lynx.

[mcroc]

I see in Browser shot web sites they check the display of not only various browsers but also those browsers on various OS. Is this necessary?

We want to test with use (not just screen shots) but don't know how far to take this. Do you think it would be sufficient to test the major browsers without reference to whether they were on OSX, or Linux, or XP or whatever? Since our stat counter software tracks resolution, we do know which of those to test also.

Thanks!

[Declan1991]

I see in Browser shot web sites they check the display of not only various browsers but also those browsers on various OS. Is this necessary?

I think your pretty safe, especially for Linux as you couldn't possibly test each distro, but then on the same hand, it wouldn't cost anything and isn't too challenging to set up a Linux distro, just to have a quick look at the sites in the popular Linux browsers.

If you happen to have access to a Mac, I would test in Safari on the Mac, but if you don't, the most I would do is have a look at a screen shot to make sure nothing is drastically wrong.