July 9, 2009, 9:09 am
One of the great frustrations of Web development is the delivery mechanism itself. Seemingly, no two Web browsers are the same. Firefox, Safari, and Chrome are largely compliant with standards, but still demonstrate variations; meanwhile, the three versions of Internet Explorer—6,7, and 8—remain in use, with vagaries between each and significant disparities with almost every other browser.
To cope with such a diverse set of platforms, Web designers and developers have concocted a number of strategies. Some aim for the lowest common denominator (although this is increasingly painful and impotent, as the weakest link is Internet Explorer 6). Some keep at least one Windows platform close at hand, populate it with as many browsers as possible, eyeball results, and tweak accordingly. Alas, while Firefox, Safari, and Chrome can coexist on the same system, multiple versions of Internet Explorer cannot. Hence, some implement solely for Internet Explorer 7 and disclaim and even preclude operation in other browsers and platforms…
