Re: OT: windoze woes and full rant mode is on


"Alistair" <alistair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1162924582.847762.316340@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<snip

Apparently they need multiple versions of I.E. as well.

In the UK, a compamy may be prosecuted for failing to provide access to
disabled users. So every possible eyesight impairment must be catered
for (and some require action which would impede other visually impaired
users). It is not beyond imagination to consider a future where one
could be prosecuted for failing to provide adequate access to IE3
users.

According to best recommendations (in various webmaster manuals) you
should test on browsers as far back as IE3 (the most popular one), IE6
(the fastest growing variant of IE), Netscape (3 and 4?), Firefox (the
worlds' favourite?), etc. Oh, and don't forget, don't design in Flash
because many users still use 28k modems, don't use activex (security
issues) and many people disable Java and Javascript.


Thanks for reminding me about this, Alistair. I had honestly forgotten how
difficult some people and organisations, who have probably never developed a
web site in their lives, try and make it for those of us who do.

The fact is that, as a web developer, of course I want as many people as
possible to see my sites and enjoy the experience of visiting. I'll take all
reasonable measures to guarantee this, but if some are not able, then that
is just too bad. Who suffers here? Only the Web Developer. To try and
legally enforce measures to make the site more accessible is crazy. I don't
discriminate against handicapped people in life and I wouldn't do so on a
web site, but neither will I spend hours to ensure that any particular
portion of this group can have access. If they can't see the pages, I'm
sorry. There are accessibility features in Windows that may help. If they
choose not to use Windows or use some other software that doesn't have those
features, then that is entirely a matter for them.

By the same token, if an antiMS fanatic tells me I MUST make the site
friendly to his particular flavour of Browser, and there is "no excuse" for
not doing so, I would say I can immediately think of several excuses for not
doing so... Being coerced would be the first one :-)

When people develop web sites they put in many hours of thought and effort
to designing and building. They will use tools that help that process. Those
tools are usually oriented to the platform where the site is being built,
although products like Dreamweaver have had rudimentary facilities for cross
browser testing for many years. Unfortunately, these tests are not always
accurate, as I found to my chagrin during the last development exercise I
undertook. The latest release of Dreamweaver (part of MacroMedia's Studio 8)
apparently has rectified this and is much better at ensuring cross browser
compatibility, but this is a very expensive tool.

Nobody developing a web site wants to limit the accessibility of it, either
by browser or by any other limiting factor. It is a question of what is
viable. If I embed an ActiveX control on my web server, there is no problem.
If I try and download it to the client, there can be. If I put JavaScript
on a client page, some of the people viewing it won't see it as intended; if
I replace it with ASP on the server and dynamically create the page, there
should be no problem.

You could easily conclude that the best solution is probably to do
EVERYTHING on the web server, then simply serve up a dynamically constructed
page that suits the particular browser being used. This is the goal I am
currently trying to reach, but it certainly isn't easy.

I will soon be undertaking a major web development effort and will use all
the experience I have accumulated previously to try and attain this goal.

It isn't just about browsers, either. There is the question of what the
Hosting ISP will allow... can I run COBOL CGI code? Does he support ASP,
Java/VB Script on the server? Can I use MySQL or must it be SQL Server?

There is much more to it than the average person realises when they just
find that their browser doesn't render a certain page correctly.

Web developers are probably never going to be all things to all people
(except maybe for the very most trivial applications with static pages). I
try to listen to the feedback I get and take it on board. But if it takes me
100 hours to make something I have already built, visible to 15% of the
audience for it, I'd rather invest that 100 hours providing better stuff for
the 85%...

Truly it is written...

"For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him
shall be taken away even that which he hath."

(St. Mark, if I remember rightly...)

Pete.





.

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