Refactoring HTML: cross browser issues

[Gian Franco]

Hello Elliotte,

In our projects we use Google Analytics to figure out
which browsers are used in comparable web applications
we developed previously.

In other circumstances the customer informs us which
browser is used in their organisation. Sometimes this
is still IE6, depending on how fast the organisation is
ready to switch to other browsers.

Given the above we focus on the most used browser and make
sure the application works and looks as intended in it, but
we do keep an eye on other browsers too.

Anyway, cross-browser issues cost a lot of time, how would
you tackle this issue?

Thanks,

Gian

[ July 15, 2008: Message edited by: Gian Franco ]
[ July 15, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Standards based approaches work much more reliably across browsers than non-standards based approaches. If you do need to support multiple browsers (and really you always do, even when you think you don't) the simplest approach is usually to develop in Firefox, validate, make it work in Internet Explorer, and validate again.

[Bear Bibeault]

And don't snub Safari. My Apple fan-boyism may be showing, but I think that the iPhone is going to become an important business platform going forward.
[ July 16, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Bear Bibeault]

That's also another argument for the resolution-independence discussed in another topic.

[Katrina Owen]

The creative team at the company I work at FINALLY decided to create a fallback for the all-flash homepage.

Guess why?

They got iPhones.

[Bear Bibeault]

Nothing like a little personal pain for motivation, eh?

[Katrina Owen]

Personal pain is wonderful. Who was it that said that some of the best development efforts started out when some developer needed to scratch their own itch? Maybe Eric S. Raymond...

Last week I spent about 50% of my hours fixing data due to bugs in a couple of other peoples' programs. I suggested to my boss that they fix the data errors themselves until they've fixed the bugs

I figured:

1) personal pain would serve to induce faster bug fixes
2) the pain of fixing data would be on the shoulders of those responsible for creating the problems in the first place

I'm usually not this vindictive, but these data problems are a real pain. I'm happy to fix bugs, but fixing a problem only to see it return every half hour is just too depressing.
[ July 18, 2008: Message edited by: Katrina Owen ]