[Web4lib] Browsers to test

[Leo Robert Klein]

Robert Sullivan wrote:
>> 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.
> 


I assume the rep was speechless because the question seemed like a 
likely scenario.  How the site would look in NS4 might not be as 
pertinent.  Indeed, considering the fact that you can't design for every 
eventually on the planet -- sticking to how the online service looks on 
a Cell Phone and dumping consideration even of 3.2 browsers might be a 
justifiable trade-off.

At some point, designers/developers/vendors have to choose.

LEO

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