Today I have been reduced to a ball of rage again by that ultimate of swear fit inducing web design activity – browser compatability. I seriously think someone should start some kind of web designer support group. It could be called browser crisis, they could even develop a pixel release therapy. Plaster an Internet Explorer logo onto a bobo doll and we’d have a very valid web designer stress relief.
The times I’ve been reduced to either a screaming whirl wind of swearing devish or to a shaking caffine enhanced wreck; all due to the differences between the variety of browser antagonists. It’s a common theme and you could google until the cows come home and get the same rants and rages regarding the racism around browsers. Love it or hate it, broswer compatability is the bane of the web designer and developers life.
For me, I end up settling on the holy four : firefox, safari, opera, internet explorer – with at times there being the fifth horseman of the apocolypse in konqueor or galeon. Everyone has varying testbeds, there are simple rules of mac, windows and linux if you don’t like your brain cells (I consider mandrake the best if anyone is asking). My own testbeds vary at work and at home, as do a lot of people. I am lucky enough to have a thorough one at home consisting of a g5 imac, vaio windows laptop and box frankensteined from various boxes body parts and stuck together with a nice mouse. Whatever your situation you can’t fail to be forced to realise you need to consider browser compatability until the god’s of reason reign. I wouldn’t hold you breath though there seems little sanity where the paranoid schizophrenic browser market is concerned.
Yes, there are the mavericks who say ‘sod it to all’ and focus on one, but they are fool hardy and will only go the way of frontpage. It is a fact, if you want to be any kind of real web designer you have to face the enemy head on, sign up for membership to browser crisis and collect your swear box.
So nothing more for it, I’m off to buy the domain name, get the hosting and set up a browser icon bobo doll online store. Might aswell make profit from the enemy.
