What browsers are using to test?

[Alan Silver]

Hello,

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages. Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

TIA

--
Alan Silver
(anything added below this line is nothing to do with me)

[saz]

In article <9Y************ **@nospamthanky ou.spam>, alan-
si****@nospam.t hanx.invalid says...

Hello,

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages. Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

TIA

I'm spoiled, as I have all of these and use each for testing:

Win XP with IE 6, FF 1.5, Opera 8
Win ME with IE 6, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Win 98 with IE 5.5, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Mac OS 9 with IE5, Netscape 7, Opera 6
Mac OS X with Safari, FF 1.5

I don't know of any way to check on a MAC browser without a MAC.

[axlq]

In article <9Y************ **@nospamthanky ou.spam>,
Alan Silver <al*********@no spam.thanx.inva lid> wrote:

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages.
Windows:

Opera
Firefox
IE
Netscape

Unix / Linux:

Lynx
Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

I'd like to know too.

-A

[David E. Ross]

Alan Silver wrote:

Hello,

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages. Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

I hand-code all my Web pages, using an ASCII file editor. First of all,
I try to develop my pages in accord with the Viewable With Any Browser
Campaign. See <http://www.anybrowser. org/campaign/index.html>.

I use only one browser to check the appearance of the page. Then I test
the page at <http://validator.w3.or g/>. If I make any changes to a
style-sheet file or if I have more than 1 or 2 lines of style-sheet in
the HEAD section of the HTML, I test it at
<http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/>. If it's not my own personal Web
site, I also check the page for accessibility at
<http://webxact.watchfi re.com/ScanForm.aspx>.

If the page is designed for all browsers, looks okay with one browser,
complies with the W3C HTML specification, and meets the WAI Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (Level A), I then assume it will indeed
look okay with other browsers on other platforms. Occasionally, I will
go to the nearby public library (whose PCs have a browser different from
my own) and check a sample of my pages.

--

David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>

Concerned about someone (e.g., Pres. Bush) snooping
into your E-mail? Use PGP.
See my <http://www.rossde.com/PGP/>

[Alan Silver]

In article <MP************ ************@ne wsgroups.comcas t.net>, saz
<sa*****@nospam mersexcite.com> writes

In article <9Y************ **@nospamthanky ou.spam>, alan-
si****@nospam. thanx.invalid says...

Hello,

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages. Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

TIA
I'm spoiled, as I have all of these and use each for testing:

Win XP with IE 6, FF 1.5, Opera 8
Win ME with IE 6, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Win 98 with IE 5.5, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Mac OS 9 with IE5, Netscape 7, Opera 6
Mac OS X with Safari, FF 1.5

Thanks for that. Out of interest, do you ever see differences between
the same version of a browser, but on different platforms? For example,
you listed IE6 on both XP and ME, and Mozilla 1.7 on both ME and 98. Is
this necessary, or are you just enjoying being spoiled!!

As it happens, I have MS Virtual PC, so I have access to pretty much as
many MS OSs as I need, I just don't want to waste time checking things
that don't need checking.

Also, do you always stick to checking the latest versions? Apart from
IE5, which was such a major problem that you need to check separately,
you only seem to be checking the latest versions of each browser (apart
form Opera). I could hazard a guess that pretty much anyone keen enough
to download and install a non-IE browser on Windows is likely to keep it
up to date, but that's just a guess!!
I don't know of any way to check on a MAC browser without a MAC.

I thought not. This is a bit of a pain. I'm not sure of how to get
around this, other than buying a Mac, which is an expensive way to check
pages!!

Thanks for the reply.

--
Alan Silver
(anything added below this line is nothing to do with me)

[Alan Silver]

In article <7N************ ********@iswest .net>, David E. Ross
<no****@nowhere .not> writes

If the page is designed for all browsers, looks okay with one browser,
complies with the W3C HTML specification, and meets the WAI Web Content
Accessibilit y Guidelines 1.0 (Level A), I then assume it will indeed
look okay with other browsers on other platforms. Occasionally, I will
to the nearby public library (whose PCs have a browser different from
my own) and check a sample of my pages.

No disrespect, but my (limited) experience, and what I've read around
here leads me to believe that it's not that simple, unless you're doing
very very basic pages. Once you get into CSS for example, browsers have
very varied support, even if the code is 100% valid, and can render the
page very differently. That's why I was asking what people use.

Thanks anyway

--
Alan Silver
(anything added below this line is nothing to do with me)

[saz]

In article <oO************ **@nospamthanky ou.spam>, alan-
si****@nospam.t hanx.invalid says...

In article <MP************ ************@ne wsgroups.comcas t.net>, saz
<sa*****@nospam mersexcite.com> writes

In article <9Y************ **@nospamthanky ou.spam>, alan-
si****@nospam. thanx.invalid says...

Hello,

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages. Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

TIA

I'm spoiled, as I have all of these and use each for testing:

Win XP with IE 6, FF 1.5, Opera 8
Win ME with IE 6, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Win 98 with IE 5.5, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Mac OS 9 with IE5, Netscape 7, Opera 6
Mac OS X with Safari, FF 1.5

Thanks for that. Out of interest, do you ever see differences between
the same version of a browser, but on different platforms? For example,
you listed IE6 on both XP and ME, and Mozilla 1.7 on both ME and 98. Is
this necessary, or are you just enjoying being spoiled!!

As it happens, I have MS Virtual PC, so I have access to pretty much as
many MS OSs as I need, I just don't want to waste time checking things
that don't need checking.

Also, do you always stick to checking the latest versions? Apart from
IE5, which was such a major problem that you need to check separately,
you only seem to be checking the latest versions of each browser (apart
form Opera). I could hazard a guess that pretty much anyone keen enough
to download and install a non-IE browser on Windows is likely to keep it
up to date, but that's just a guess!!

I don't know of any way to check on a MAC browser without a MAC.

I thought not. This is a bit of a pain. I'm not sure of how to get
around this, other than buying a Mac, which is an expensive way to check
pages!!

Thanks for the reply.

CSS support is always going to be the major headache, so I use IE 5.5 on
WIN 98 regularly. There are some subtle differences in different OS's
with the same browsers, but often a minor tweak can fix it to look
somewhat like what I desire.

But the MAC's - now that can be tricky. IE 5 for Mac is not a good
browser, yet many use it. CSS support is poor. Safari is better, but I
remember about 6 months ago finally getting a site "just right" and then
viewing it in Safari - major problems that took several hours to fix.
Now I check sites as I go along each day instead of waiting to the end.

[Alan Silver]

In article <MP************ ************@ne wsgroups.comcas t.net>, saz
<sa*****@nospam mersexcite.com> writes

Now I check sites as I go along each day instead of waiting to the end.

Oh I do that anyway, which is another good reason to limit the checking
to as few browsers as necessary.

Ta ra

--
Alan Silver
(anything added below this line is nothing to do with me)

[Adrienne Boswell]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Alan Silver <alan-
si****@nospam.t hanx.invalid> writing in news:9Yo
$1***********@n ospamthankyou.s pam:

Hello,

Just wondered what range of browsers, versions and OSs people are using
to test pages. Also, since I don't have access to a Mac, will I have
problems not being able to test on any Mac browsers, or is there some
other way of checking?

TIA

I write for Opera, then test in Firefox and IE. I don't give NS4 a
stylesheet at all. I have all the versions of IE, except 7 beta (and
only because I don't want it taking over my system yet).

For Mac, I go to the local Mac store and view the pages there. I also
have a local Kinkos that has a Mac, and the local library has one, too.
I take a notebook with me and jot down and huge problems so I can fix
them when I get home. Of course, since I hand code, and I validate
everything, and I try very hard not to use any hacks, I don't usually
have any big problems.

--
Adrienne Boswell
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

[kchayka]

Alan Silver wrote:

In article <MP************ ************@ne wsgroups.comcas t.net>, saz
<sa*****@nospam mersexcite.com> writes

Win XP with IE 6, FF 1.5, Opera 8
Win ME with IE 6, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Win 98 with IE 5.5, Mozilla 1.7, Opera 7.5
Thanks for that. Out of interest, do you ever see differences between
the same version of a browser, but on different platforms?

FWIW, I can't remember ever seeing any noticeable difference between the
same browser version on different Windows versions. It is also rare to
see differences between the same browser version on different platforms.
I don't even bother testing those scenerios any more.

What I do have is:
W2K:
- IE 5.0, 5.5, 6
- Opera 7.5 and 8
- Netscape 7.2 (and 4.x, but I don't bother with it any more)
- a recent mozilla build
- lynx
WinXP:
- IE7 beta
Linux:
- Konqueror 3.4
- Firefox 1.something
Mac OSX 10.2:
- IE 5
- Safari 1.0 (the last release available for 10.2)
- iCab 3.x

If there are any noticeable differences between NS 7.2 and a recent
mozilla build, I may test an interim version of Firefox, but that hardly
ever happens. A lot of times I even forget to test NS 7.2. :)

BTW, Apple wants me to pay them a lot of money for a new OS just so I
can upgrade Safari. I refuse to feed their greed, so I'm stuck with 1.0
there.
For example,
you listed IE6 on both XP and ME, and Mozilla 1.7 on both ME and 98. Is
this necessary, or are you just enjoying being spoiled!!
Sounds more like creating unnecessary work for yourself, IYAM. ;)

I don't know of any way to check on a MAC browser without a MAC.

Hopefully, if a recent version of Konqueror is OK, more recent versions
of Safari are, too. They are both KHTML browsers, though Apple does do
its own thing.
I'm not sure of how to get
around this, other than buying a Mac, which is an expensive way to check
pages!!

A couple years ago I got myself a used G3 powerbook for a couple hundred
dollars. They're probably even cheaper now. It's good enough for
testing, except for that OS version thing...

HTH

--
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