additions… #40
…web design…
apparent madness across browser-land…
Browsers come and browsers go, and some just hang around, but no matter how many screens they end up on, those screens are still flat. I don't know about you, but after having gone through 3 dozen browsers that all claim to be unique, I'm getting a bit tired of the apparent madness.
I now have enough browsers to last me a life-time, and they'll all be outdated and in need of an upgrade within 3 months to a year. They all also render all well-built and most other web sites pretty much identical – if one isn't hung up on details, so one browser would do.
Sure, it is fine with
me that people spend years developing browsers or building on top of original or converted versions of existing
browser-engines.
After all: I have spent quite some time testing and developing for them, and don't mind if they multiply – as long as they work that is.
However, after having tested all these browsers and numerous versions of each over a two month period, in order to write a reasonably correct update of my list over supported browsers, I've come to the conclusion that either I'm mad, or a quite high number of browser developers and promoters have lost their mind.
Oh, well, I guess its the same with browsers as with anything else: come up with an idea, and then steal, copy and tweak for a few years, and you'll finally end up with something at least some people think is unique enough to be worth the effort. Maybe they're right.
the same, but different…
Most minor browsers are built on top of the engines of one of the major browsers, so as a designer I for the most part only have to keep track of the engine versions they use. Only a few unique rendering engines in widespread use, so by ignoring browsers as much as possible and focus on their engines, cross-browser designing becomes a lot easier.
Some of those minor browsers seem to have messed up their engines quite a bit, which sometimes complicates things. On average it's only a matter of determining their engine version though, as messed-up interfaces is the browser-developers' responsibility – I can't fix those interfaces anyway.
If someone think they can improve the surfing-experience by adding or removing interface-features, then by all means. Would of course be nice if all features worked as intended once they released it to the public, but as long as that doesn't end up as a web designer's problem I really couldn't care less.
Once I have figured out the relationship between interface and rendering engine for some obscure browser, it may not be allowed up on screens for many months and then only for test-rendering of local files. I'm actually not very interested in browsers – it's how they handle web standards that matters, so potential users will have to decide if they like a particular interface or not, without my help.
version-lag…
It sounds nice when someone states that a browser uses the same engine as Firefox, but it isn't so nice to discover that they're using an engine version that is a year or so behind. Such a lag is quite normal, and the actual lag at the user-end may be much worse since not everyone upgrade their browser as often as they should. Besides: not all minor browsers automatically upgrade the engine they're relying on when they upgrade their interfaces – they expect end-users to take care of that.
A large percentage of end-users have little to no idea about browsers and their engines, and seemingly couldn't care less. In many cases, for instance if working in large corporations with strict but outdated policies, they have no say on such matters either. Thus, timely upgrades across the board of essential software, like web browsers are, simply can not be expected.
That many end-users don't upgrade their browser at all, and that browser upgrades only take place when they buy a new computer with a new, pre-installed, software package, also count for a high number of old browsers and engine versions in use. Some end-users just wonder “who broke the web” when a site is upgraded and doesn't work in their aging browser.
So the version lag can be quite substantial – several years, which means we can't just ignore older browsers and engine versions without also ignoring a high number of visitors.
I'm not for ignoring anyone, but there are times when I just have to. If I want to add something that one or more browsers can't handle, then they'll just have to do without it. It probably doesn't matter much since those who can't see it normally won't know it's supposed to be there anyway, but of course the situation isn't ideal.
a state of resignation…
Like with most things in life: there's nothing we can do about the apparent madness across browser-land. In fact: not doing anything is probably the best solution to a problem that will probably last as long as the web as we know it does.
Whether it's browser developers' slowness in upgrading their products, or end-users' slowness in upgrading their browsers and other relevant software & hardware, we as web designers/developers can only watch and wait while years pass by.
Web designers can't wait for ever for old and weak browser versions to disappear from the scene. We really deserve a break, and some improved browsers to design for.
Luckily for us: improved browsers are being launced quite often. This means we can explore the future even if not all end-users can or are interested enough to bother. We still have to take care of the long tail one way or another though.
I'll limit my “debug and fix” attempts to the old and obsolete browsers and engine versions, while testing out how far the latest and greatest browsers will take me. I'm optimizing for progress, and leave to the various tool-makers to provide it.
Whether or not my optimized creations end up on visitors' screens, is beyond my control. Visitors get to choose their own surfing-tools and the rendering engines that goes with them, and that's fine with me. I wish everyone would replace old browsers with new ones though, so we could share progress.
sincerely 
Hageland 23.nov.2008
last rev: 26.feb.2009
additions…
