[thelist] pixel perfect requirements and web standards

[Jeff Howden]

Shawn,

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> From: Shawn K. Quinn
> 
> [...] Flash has this problem, in addition to the problem
> of the plug-in: it's non-free software and only
> available for the operating systems Macromedia (Adobe?)
> chooses to compile it for.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

I don't know where you've been, but the Flash plug-in has always been (and
likely will always continue to be) free.  Additionally, it's available for
pretty much every platform/browser combination currently available.  In
fact, the Flash player is more ubiquitous than any single browser.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> [...] (I've been running Flash plug-in free for most of
> three years.)
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

As a user, you are *way* out of the norm and also don't fit the profile of
the members of the intended audience, I suspect.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> > The website audience is corporate and uses browsers
> > and operating systems that are 3 years old at most -
> > if their gear is 3 years old, they're likely to
> > upgrade in the next year so backward compatibility 
> > is less of an issue.
> 
> It's a bad idea to rely on this. There is always the
> chance someone will need to access the site from
> something older or different from their usual setup.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

And it's the software vendors fault that their application doesn't run on a
machine that doesn't meet the minimum system requirements?  The same is true
here.  My experience is that users know when they're using systems that suck
and will not blame the site they're trying to use if things don't work right
on their less-than-optimal system when their experience on their optimal
system is satisfactory.

 [>] Jeff Howden
     jeff at jeffhowden.com
     http://jeffhowden.com/