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Originally Posted by BevHoward
imho, the supreme irony here is that web developers code for "ie" at all...The browser concept was founded on the basis of a common protocol where users of any os using any browser could access information from other systems.
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You're 100% right: no Web developer should have to code for a specific browser. It's completely idiotic that a Web browser, which should strictly adhere to HTML/XHTML/etc. standards, should interpret code in any way but one. Yet that's exactly what IE6 did - it was a horrible browser by all accounts (I'm not a developer) because it simply didn't work the way it should work.
Thankfully, IE8 is much better, and in fact is arguably the most standards-compliant browser there is today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BevHoward
This thread is even more ironic in that it's focus is a PC based problem on a web site that is specifically targeted for mobile users.
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Well, firstly, this is an off-topic post. Secondly, this message was posted to Pocket PC Thoughts, Smartphone Thoughts, Digital Home Thoughts, and Zune Thoughts. All kinds of different users.
But even then the point remains...Darius has recently been working on new mobile templates for all our sites. IE Mobile is a bit of a freakish beast, and of course it's not the same from one version of Windows Mobile to the next, so by not being standards-compliant, it creates headaches for developers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BevHoward
Bells, whistles and eye candy may be the holy grail of the marketing world who also can't abide the idea that their page layout might be altered to fit a different screen or perhaps an eye condition.
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But that's exactly the point Bev - if a browser properly renders HTML/CSS/etc. code properly, then usability adjustments (image zoom, text size enhancements, etc.) will work that right way. Things will get bigger, but the layout and functionality of the site will remain the same. Bigger, but not broken. When a Web developer can code to Web standards, he knows that he can guarantee a good user experience. IE 6 simply doesn't deliver that without the developer spending extra resources to compensate for it's inability to render things properly.
You seem to think that this is about fancy whiz-bang features, but it's not: it's simply about getting page elements and basic design features to be in the same place, and work the same, across all browsers. IE6 makes that a nightmare for many developers.