Development of a front-end to consider looking for a high quality standard is to ensure a homogeneous view on most popularWeb browser: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
Each version released by the team of the respective browser has had and has, who – who more less – some small flaw … on the other hand the incessant rhythms and high competition require release dates to the public ever more stringent.
In this case however I want to focus on Internet Explorer, particularly versions 6 and 7, which more or less we all know.
I’ll talk about them because with HTML5, CSS3, and new technologies on the agenda, even in Italy the web is trying to “break free”; However there are some clients who do not complete knowledge of the web or stubbornness or for special needs, claim that a site you see with the same precision “pixellistica” IE6 also on IE7and. Even our fault that we are lulled into Laurel, without looking at the news. This however means spending much more time to adopt the appropriate technical hack and implement Visual degradation of the content.
To raise an objection might be argue about the real distribution of those browsers in the world and in Italy.
We have at least three sources that make our case: W3CSchools, Statcounter and NetMarketShare (partly free).
The common denominator is that both versions are well below 10%, a threshold that would describe as psychological to seriously consider a dedicated development.
As I said before, HTML5 and CSS3 (and jQuery, to make a name) we make available of the innovations that are cool and above all are useful because they help to develop code and pages with less-often-lines and less time (and of development and loading pages).
A simple module, intended as part of the page, needs a time just to be developed and overcome compatibility on modern browsers (including IE9), then we need more and more to get it to work slowly on previous versions of IE.
Take for example a box with rounded corners and gradient background: with CSS 2.1 must upload a background image with already ready with the appearance that we need. With CSS3 rounded corners and gradient background with rules are border-radius and the background, with an actual saving byte … Unfortunately, in this specific case, on IE background is unstable and the rounded edges are seen with a file to upload.
So loading pages on IE6 and IE7 could slow i/o for the hacks required. Might be a slight difference but it is a technical aspect should not be underestimated.
If the customer insists on asking a back-compatibility for IE6 and IE7, or prefer to assess the possibility of including, in phase of development budget for these browsers extra entry, as the time needed to ensure the functioning of the project in the browser is no longer in step with the times. It’s up to me to figure out if it is really worth. Then, if it refuses, I assess together with the customer as it is better to proceed.
If the customer is simply a compatibility until IE8 browser and not too old, there are two paths:
It’s a topic that has its pros and cons, but it is a fact that, in addition to slowing the innovation research development dedicated to older versions of IE requires much more effort and time spent is not free assessment: it takes analysis, research and patience. Making it clear this aspect, the professionalism and fairness are valued.
Comments are closed.