Does it work in Netscape? IE? Opera? Mozilla? No?
We are sure that most of you have experienced errors on websites because of browser compatibility issues. Some standard issues include the "popular" resize issue for Netscape, if the site was built primarily for Internet Explorer... you know, where things just don't layout the same... and the one where DHTML menus work fine in IE but don't click in your older Netscape version?
These issues often require serious efforts to work around... and they are the result of non-compliance to standards on the part of the browser development programmers at Microsoft, Netscape, AOL, or what have you. And AOL, in particular, requires Key Word advertisers to be backward compatible to older versions of the AOL browsers, so that all their subscribers can view the sites advertised. This can sometimes require the creation of multiple sites for different users with different browsers.
Browser attacks (like panic attacks for the internet)
Because you often have no control over the browser your site visitors use, it is advisable to test the site across as many browsers as feasible... Of course many have such a small market share that they are nearly irrelevant, but often it is these that are the most compliant to standards. Certainly Internet Explorer (called Internet Exploder by some web developers) is non-compliant. So is Netscape. Both of these diverge on standards compliance and at the same time constitute nearly the entire marketplace for browsers... Microsoft's IE has nearly taken the whole by storm... at + 90 % of the market place, it sits in the place of Netscape Navigator a not very many years ago. Some outsiders are making headway though, and (we hope) will continue to do so into the future.
But how do you develop a site to ensure that it looks and acts almost the same no matter which browser you use to view it? When is it okay to NOT do the compatibility troubleshooting? How can you best test your site?
This area of the site contains articles, notes, and links to other resources that will help you answer these questions. |
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AWM Resource Area Sponsors |
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Resource Links
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alt.hypertext Frequently Asked Questions - some of the most frequently asked questions in the alt.hypertext newsgroup (+info)
Designing Websites for Multiple Browsers - Part of authoring a good Web page is knowing what to leave out and when to stop. Adding one-browser-only features often can create a one-browser-only Web page and, therefore, not a "world-wide" Web page. (+info)
EVRSOFT: A developer resource - a fairly comprehensive collection of tools, articles, scripts, etc. (+info)
HTML 4.0 Reference - HTML 4.0 became a W3C Recommendation in December of 1997. The new HTML standard provides a number of significant improvements over previous versions of the language while emphasizing the concepts of accessibility and structural markup. (+info)
HTML Validators - A list of HTML validators for web designers by the Web Design Group. (+info)
W3C HTML Standards - The authoritative HTML standards site. (+info)
W3C HTML Validator - the W3C HTML validator (+info)
Web Developers Virtual Library - A great collection of essays, tutorials, tools, resources and forums on web developments for developers. (+info)
World Wide Web Consortium - The best reference site for HTML, CSS, XML, and browser standards on the net. (+info)
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Browser Compatibility
