CSS, IE, and Continued Frustrations

By on 13 October 2003

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Brainstorms and Raves has an excellent discussion (with links) about Microsoft and issues around their somewhat non-compliant Explorer browser. As Shirley points out, most products comply with standards (e.g., IEEE, ISO) that serve a dual purpose: better quality with less duplication of effort for companies that produce the products (who needs 20 ways to build a light bulb when 1 will do?).

In the web browser space, however, Microsoft for various reasons refuses to make their browser fully standards compliant. When websites do not display properly, however, visitors blame the website when it is the Microsoft browser at fault. This entry provides links that explain why and what is at stake.

I would note that the worst case scenario — Microsoft uses its browser monopoly to impose its own standards — is somewhat limited by increasing IT use of Linux and the desire of corporations to ensure their IT efforts remain viable over time (translation: as little non-standards compliant technology as possible). There are excellent reasons to use Microsoft technology but there are equally excellent reasons to hedge your bets and protect your IT expenditures.


http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2003/10/10/feast_62_standards/

  • http://greatbird.com/ Banai Lynn Feldstein

    I browse with Mozilla. What I find too often is that web “developers” make their pages work ONLY in Internet Explorer, so they end up being utterly unreadable, and unusable in other browsers. I refuse to switch browsers because someone out there using FrontPage, instead of knowing what they’re doing, wants me to. I always view my own sites with Mozilla when I’m coding, then make sure they work in IE. For instance, I found this site because I just completed some reprogramming of a web site, switched over to IE, and found that my CSS was completely ignored as an external file. I now have the choice to go back and place the style information into each and every page of the site, or let the IE users live without it.

  • http://www.reachcustomersonline.com Tim

    That’s also why God made include files: she (!) wants to spare us having to maintain hard coded styles on every page of a website. ASP and PHP work great in this regard.

    I also understand the frustration with CSS and IE. For me, at least, it goes both ways. CSS is not ready for primetime the way HTML is and has been. There are alot of subtleties you only learn if you stumble on the right combination of person, website, book, and/or experience.

    One of the best sources for identifying those subtleties is to read all the comments at the Simple Quiz at SimpleBits.com (http://www.simplebits.com/tips/simplequiz/).

    Tim

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