[thelist] building sites for Macs

[MacEdition's CodeBitch]

Dear Shoshannah,

Most modern Mac browsers handle fonts the same way as their Windows
counterparts, ie assuming 96 pixels per inch not the Mac OS default of
72ppi. This reduces the risk of creating text that's too tiny to read on a
Mac, but it doesn't eliminate it because IE and Mozilla allow 72ppi as a
user-definable option. In any case, defining font sizes in points for screen
display is usually considered a no-no [insert obligatary AlistApart URL
here]. There's also the Opera/Mac CSS px unit issue for font sizes (see
earlier discussions on evolt and elsewhere) but this isn't one of your
target browsers.

I can't comment on JavaScript/DOM support since there is only so much one
CodeBitch can do (try Peter-Paul Koch's site), but I have explored the CSS
support of Mac browsers extensively. Without wishing to give myself too much
of a plug (really!) I would suggest trawling through some of the columns I
have written for MacEdition (http://www.macedition.com/cb/), many of which
deal specifically with CSS support issues in Mac browsers like iCab and
OmniWeb. I will also be publishing a more comprehensive guide to CSS support
in these browsers in the future, but the project is not yet finished.

In a nutshell however:
* Mozilla on the Mac works with same as its Windows/Linux counterparts,
unless advised otherwise in the release notes. Certainly all the standards
support stuff is the same.

* iCab does CSS1 (other than float/clear) but not CSS2. There are also some
quite serious glitches with its box model interpretation: margins defined in
CSS are _added_ to the default margins of some elements (P, H1-H6 etc)
instead of replacing them. Percentage widths are defined with respect to the
window, not the parent element, which is wrong.

* OmniWeb's CSS support is buggy, partial and implemented in strange ways.
Background colors only work in table cells or absolutely positioned
elements, and DIVs in the 4.1 preview releases but not 4.0.x. Don't have a
white BODY, dark DIV and white text, for example, if you want OmniWeb users
to read it. Border, padding, negative margins, float, clear and a bunch of
other things just don't work.

* There are no constructive ways to hide CSS from iCab or OmniWeb along the
lines of the @import hack for Netscape, without simultaneously hiding it
from most versions of IE/Mac.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
CodeBitch 

> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 14
> From: "Shoshannah Forbes" <xslf at xslf.com>
> To: "The List" <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 22:03:37 +0100
> Organization: http://www.xslf.com
> charset="Windows-1252"
> Subject: [thelist] building sites for Macs
> Reply-To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> 
> [cross-posted to babble and evolt. Sorry for the duplication if you are on
> both]
> I am working on an article for an Israeli E-zine about building sites for
> Macs. Because of Hebrew support (or lack thereof) issues, I will be covering
> only Mozilla, Icab and Omniweb browsers.
> Do you have by chance information or links to resources about things to keep
> in mind when designing to those browsers? General Mac vs. PC issues are also
> useful.
> Please note that in Israel, most people who design and build sites work on
> windows.
> 
> Thanks!