[thelist] Re: Baseline version for Netscape 6

[Clive Sweeney]

Christy "sasha" Siepker wrote:
>Why should a designer who wants to test on various
>browsers (which may or may not all be 100% standards
>compliant -- afterall, which browser is?) want the most
>compliant version just because it is the most compliant?
>That doesn't make a whole lot of sense if said designer
>wants to make sure their design looks good on most
>browsers...

I understand what you're saying here and had considered it, but of course we
have to draw a line somewhere when we're deciding how many test browsers to
use. My understanding was that for the first several months Netscape 6 was
especially buggy, but that finally we got a version that worked as intended.
Those users who were quick to adopt the first few releases of Netscape 6 are
people who like to have the latest thing and thus are also likely to have
upgraded again as newer versions have come out, especially since the early
versions were problematic. So, in fact, how many users have stayed with the
early versions?

>I personally would think 6.0 would be the baseline
>version to go off of, since it is the earliest version
>in the series.  Later versions would mostly be tweaks
>and crash fixes.  But, if you know which one is the most
>buggy, that should be the one you pick :-).

And isn't this really the essential question we deal with much of the
time -- whether or not to spend an inordinate amount of time accommodating
the bugs? Unfortunately, we're in a situation where the tail is definitely
wagging the dog.

But I appreciate the different points of view I've received. That's exactly
why I brought up the issue. I didn't want to make a recommendation until I'd
heard from the pros.

... clive
clive at imageassociates.com