[thelist] Re: Jumping In With Both Feet

Lachlan Cannon tiedefenderdelta6 at yahoo.com
Tue Dec 11 12:34:42 CST 2001


My two cents:

If you code for standards complaince, using xhtml/html and
css for formatting and layout everything in the correct
order you shouldn't have any problems.

Eg, you go to amazon (which has been laid out this way).
you have NS4.5. NS4.5 doesn't get an advanced stylsheet,
but everything is still laid out correctly, because the
code is in the correct order.

You return with IE 2. IE 2 doesn't understand ANY CSS. It
still displays fine and is usable, because it is laid out
in a logical order.

You return with Opera 6. Site looks nice and is functional.

You return with a voice browser. Because everything is
coded corectly and in the correct order, your voice browser
can deal with it. You can make a purchase.

Amazon is laid out with nested tables now.

You go with NS 4.5. It looks good and is usable.

IE 2. Looks ok, is usable.

Opera 6. Looks fine, is usable.

Voice browser. Uhoh. Voice browser mangles the page because
of all this illogical ordering and nested tables. Damn,
there goes one sale.

So in the end which one generated more business?

There should be no "design for new browsers" or "design for
old browsers". It should be design for standards, design
logically. It doesn't matter what browser the user has
then. All you need to do is make basic checks to make sure
not everything is mangled.

Oh, and upgrading to newer browsers can be to their
advantage. What if the UI functions in all browsers but is
EXTRA helpful, and EXTRA logicl in the newer ones, simply
because they habdle the code better, code that you can't
hack the older browsers to handle.

And you shouldn't need to make different pages for browsers
or anything. It takes less of your time. It suits ALL the
users, if done properly. I don't see any loses here, maybe
I'm just missing something?

Whoah that was long, I owe a tip or two.

<tip type="php" author="Lachlan">
Want to send email with attachemnts with php but don't know
how? Zend has run a great series on this.

http://www.zend.com/zend/spotlight/sendmimeemailpart1.php

And don't forget Zend for other requirements, there are
many useful tutorials there, as well as some not too shoddy
tips.
</tip>
<tip type="css" author="Lachlan">
Want to try out some nifty CSS tricks that won't break your
layout? Internet Explorer 6 has support for custom cursors.

www.microsoft.com/ie/ie6/

Warning: Know your audience before changing cursors. Even
if all you do is change the colours of the cursors to match
your scheme, some people may become confused/scared by the
changes.
</tip>

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