Posts Tagged ‘browsers’
CSS Hacks is bad for the carbon footprint
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
April 1st 2009
I just finished reading CSS Tip: Targeting IE 5.x, 6 and 7 Separately – Ed Eliot. It was written 2 years and 5 months ago.
I needed to find out about some code that one of our freelance web designers had put into the stylesheets of our website at work last week.
To use an example from Ed Eliot’s site
.box {
background: #00f; /* all browsers including Mac IE */
*background: #f00; /* IE 7 and below */
_background: #0f0; /* IE 6 and below */
_bac\kground: #f60; /* IE 6 only */
padding: 7px;
color: #fff;
}
Yes, I am talking about the star property hack, and underscore, escape hack.
It is different from the normal star hack in that the star is used inside the CSS style properties.
Sure, I do not mind putting in MS propriety code in my CSS – especially when it does not justify its own stylesheet.
But…
CSS hacks using browser bugs to cater for obsolete browsers is wrong on so many levels when you can use simple conditional comments.
<!--[if IE]> IE Conditional Comment: Internet Explorer <![endif]-->
<!--[if !IE]><!--> IE Conditional Comment: NOT Internet Explorer <!-- <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 6]> IE Conditional Comment: Internet Explorer 6 only <![endif]-->
If you really need to use CSS hacks to do something in CSS, then you have probably implemented it wrong.
My suggestion is to anyone who tries to cater to Internet Explorer, do use conditional comments. So what if it means another file, it will only be loaded by the browser you specify. Masochists using obsolete versions of IE (IE6 is seven years old) won’t know the difference, and seriously do not care about whether a site works fast or not. A millisecond longer load time won’t make a lick of difference to them. Users of standard compliant browsers will not care the slightest, because your code works for them. They are happy not having to download the propriety code for crappy CSS implementation that Microsoft is guilty of.
Do not let CSS hacks taint your code. It is wrong, makes the code hard to validate, confuses the heck out of people, makes CSS look very Web 1.0 and it kills puppies.
You do not want to kill a puppy do you?
Firefox 3 – A new hope
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
June 18th 2008
I have no doubt that the more tech-savvy of my visitors already know that Firefox 3 is launching on Tuesday 17th June 2008. As the geek and internet-entrapreneur that I am, this exites me a lot. Of course I have already adapted the beta as my main browser, but it has a few things that have bothered me. Most of my major tools work absolutely fine, but I really miss my Google Toolbar (strange but true – I like Googles products as I see them as productivity enhancements).
Anyway, I don’t want to get side-tracked. Firefox 3 is the first of the Alpha browsers latest updates. Internet Explorer 8 will be launched during 3rd quarter of 2008, which I myself find strange, as IE7 still is not widely used, and IE6 users keep on annoying me. Seriously, everyone should take the 5 minutes it takes to keep their browsers updated. Not only because of aestethics but also because of security issues. I know, I know. Mr Joe-Average User does not care about these things – he “just want it to work”. Well, life is not that easy unless you make it so. These days there are automatic updates for almost all major softwares used both in the home and at work. Windows update is probably the one normal users are most familiar with, but unfortunately it still gives normal users too much power – They can still turn down updates if they are connected to the web.
Firefox has so far one of the less intrusive ways of updating, it can be controlled in the options menu. The software will check if there is a new version and either download it for you and inform you when it has installed it, or if you need to download a new version, then it will let you know the steps to get the latest version.
Anyway, if you want to read more about the new features of Firefox three, then I suggest you head over to Mozillas site. I don’t see any reason repeating the functionality here.
Although, the new bookmarking facility makes the download completely worth it.
Consistency between browsers
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
April 16th 2008
Why is it that both professional web producers and clients alike insists on comparing the look and feel between different browsers? Especially between what is considered Alpha browsers (Firefox2+, IE7+, Safari 2/3b and Opera 9+) and Beta browsers like Internet Explorer 6 – the scourge of the internet.
I understand everything there is about presenting a coherent look and feel, that presents the clients brand in a consistent way.
But let’s face it: It doesn’t matter. The target group will not sit there with 4 different browsers open, comparing the differences! Most likely they will either never update their browsers because of lazy IT staff (I mean you Simon Hill 
, and therefore never see a proper version of the site.
Or if they are relatively IT-competent, they keep their browser updated at least at home.
Now, my argument is this: intentionally MAKE sites look really good in Alpha browsers, and passable in Beta and below. Why? Because coding for deprecated browsers take a lot of time, and cost a lot of money.
“Oh but if you code correctly, you don’t need to worry about that” and “Over 90% use Internet Explorer 6″ I hear you cry!
Absolute bull! I am not talking about browser snobbery, trying to convince people to switch to standards compatible browsers like Opera, Firefox and Safari, but to simply reward people who keep their browsers and computers up to date.
If people insist on using old style browsers, then they just won’t get the full experience. Simple as that.
And also, if there is a difference of 2 pixels here and there when compared between browsers – IT DOESN’T MATTER. The user experience will not vary because of this anyway! As long as the general composition is the same, and typography adhered to, then this is a moot point.
