[Web4lib] Browsers to test

[Robert Sullivan]

> Still, 10 years for a web browser (that wasn't all that great to begin
> with) is time enough!  In "web years", it's a century.

No argument there, but that's not the point.  As NS4 fell off the
radar, it was replaced by a menagerie of alternate browsers and (more
importantly) new devices, so the issue is not just "Use CSS to design
for modern browsers and devices we haven't thought of yet" but also
designing for methods of access which don't support CSS.

NS4 is still useful as an extreme case of this, whether or not anyone
is using it to look at your site.  You could also use Off by One, an
HTML 3.2 browser which doesn't support CSS, although without NS4's
endearing habit of trying to support CSS and going down in flames it
doesn't have quite the same effect.

When we were in the market for a new ILS, one of the audience members
at a meeting left the sales rep speechless by asking if patrons could
submit reserves on their cell phones.  We shouldn't make the same
mistake.  If you're doing a local history site, your patrons may not
be using your city directory street listings on their cell phones to
follow their ancestor's footsteps, or standing in a cemetery and
searching the nearest gravestone to orient themselves relative to the
plot they're trying to find - but they *could* if you take it into
consideration when you design the site.

-- 
Bob Sullivan
Schenectady Digital History Archive
<http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>
Schenectady County (NY) Public Library