The Case For Multiple Browser Support…(Or Not)
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Lately I’ve been discussing my recent dive into the world of web development– design, css/xhtml, and php coding. One of the projects I’m starting with, a webcomic, was mainly chosen to make the process more enjoyable. And to put things in perspective, I am just now completing the css/xhtml phase. It was during this phase that I ran into some issues concerning browser support that I suppose new and seasoned developers alike both face.
During the design phase I really didn’t give browser support all that much thought. In fact my chief concern during this development stage was keeping my Gimp layers separate to allow me to easily use the graphics in css/xhtml markup. My second most pressing concern was making sure I could reduce the size of the images while maintaining quality and improving browser load times. At first I was solely working with jpeg images but quickly turned to png files for some of the graphics due to its superior support for image transparencies. Going in, I had no idea this choice would affect which browsers would properly handle the look and feel of my site. Of course I knew that older browsers would have problems, but I naively thought no modern browser would encounter these same problems.
Needless to say, Internet Explorer is not your typical browser. I encountered problems with virtually every version of IE due to the image file types alone. IE just didn’t handle transparency correctly on a consistent basis. Also some of the css positioning which I used that was handled correctly by most gecko browsers didn’t work in IE. Firefox, while rock solid for the most part, also had a couple of problems. The main one being that Firefox 2 doesn’t totally implement the css statement inline-block. This is not a problem in FF3 or the latest versions of Opera.
Since I develop primarily using the latest open source technology, many of these issues didn’t surface until I booted into the windows side of my machine and started testing my design and implementation there. I also used the fantastic browsershots.org service to test how well the look of the site held up across upwards of 60 additional browsers.
The Implementation Dilemma
So now knowing where some of problems existed, I had to decide if I was going to fix all, some, or none of them. With IE there is a never ending list of hacks one can implement to overcome many of its shortcomings. Also I could have used gifs instead png files to overcome some of the image compatibility issues. However I decided against both of these solutions. Reason #1 is that this a personal project. If I were doing a project for a main stream business, I would probably implement some hacks to provide better IE support. Secondly, I like having clean css without mudding my stylesheet with ever-changing hacks. Finally, Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 works extremely well with the site. Microsoft seems to be going in the right direction with this version.
As far as Firefox goes, FF3 totally supports my design and implementation and version 2 only has problems with the inline-block statement I used. Firefox does have a workaround for this which I may use. I also could implement the feature in question in another way. But I’m leaning towards looking forward and mainly supporting FF3 and beyond. The latest version of Opera– fast becoming my favorite browser– also has excellent support.
The question then becomes: Do you support the old standards or strictly embrace the new ones? In this case I have opted for the latter. Will this alienate some possible visitors? Of course it will, but you can’t please everyone. I think as a site developer and content creator, you have to stay true to your vision for the site. The web is a huge place and people will come.
Kim Jackson
