473,320 Members | 2,104 Online
Bytes | Software Development & Data Engineering Community
Post Job

Home Posts Topics Members FAQ

Join Bytes to post your question to a community of 473,320 software developers and data experts.

Reasonable Browser versions to support

Hello,

I don't know if this is the best place to ask this question but if its
not I'm sure someboy will tell where is.

I am taking a website that has been developed for IE browsers running
on Windows systems to a multi platform multi browser site. What
versions of what browsers is reasonable to have to work with.

This site is going to require users have Adobe Acrobat reader
installed and windows IE users are going to have access to an ActiveX
control for additional functionality.

So is there a list somewhere of browsers and also is there any kind of
virtual system for testing these. I don't have any unix or mac
systems available to test from so how will I know that everything is
working on them?

Thanks

David Logan
Jul 23 '05 #1
5 1349
On 31 May 2004 10:58:43 -0700, ib*********@yahoo.com (David Logan)
wrote:
This site is going to require users have Adobe Acrobat reader
installed
Why? why not anything that can read PDF's?
So is there a list somewhere of browsers and also is there any kind of
virtual system for testing these.


Nope, just author defensively.

Jim.
--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq/

Jul 23 '05 #2
ib*********@yahoo.com (David Logan) writes:
I am taking a website that has been developed for IE browsers running
on Windows systems to a multi platform multi browser site. What
versions of what browsers is reasonable to have to work with.
All current and future browsers.

The trick to that is to use standards. Use validating HTML and CSS and
use the W3C DOM where possible. It is reasonable to expect all (near)
future browsers to understand this correctly. However, you should
still make the pages degrade cleanly when Javascript, or particular
features, are not available.

Then you must decide which current browsers you want to support as
well. Some of these have bad standards support (IE in particular),
and you make the page degrade cleanly for these browsers as well.
This site is going to require users have Adobe Acrobat reader
installed
That is a problem. There are other ways to show PDF-files, and even
Acrobat isn't always integrated into the browser (i.e., you can't tell
the difference between opening the PDF file and just saving it).
and windows IE users are going to have access to an ActiveX
control for additional functionality.
Extra functionality is not important if you can use the page without
it. It's just a bonus.
So is there a list somewhere of browsers
If there is, it's pretty certain that it isn't complete, and it will
not prepare you for the future.
and also is there any kind of virtual system for testing these.
That would be <URL:http://www.browsercam.com/>
It'll only show how it looks, the Javascript is harder to test.
I don't have any unix or mac systems available to test from so how
will I know that everything is working on them?


You can, fairly easily, get a Linux or BSD system running on any
standard PC. The Mac browsers (mostly Safari, not many people use
IE 5.2 for Mac any more) are harder to test.

Good luck.
/L
--
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen - lr*@hotpop.com
DHTML Death Colors: <URL:http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/rasterTriangleDOM.html>
'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine.'
Jul 23 '05 #3
"Lasse Reichstein Nielsen" wrote:
David Logan wrote:

<snip>
and windows IE users are going to have access to an ActiveX
control for additional functionality.


Extra functionality is not important if you can use the
page without it. It's just a bonus.


There is a running assumption that if the browser is Windows IE then it
will run ActiveX. It is a mistake that even Microsoft are guilty of,
leaving me with no choice but use a Gecko browser when visiting MSDN.

<snip>
I don't have any unix or mac systems available to test from so how
will I know that everything is working on them?


You can, fairly easily, get a Linux or BSD system running on any
standard PC. The Mac browsers (mostly Safari, not many people use
IE 5.2 for Mac any more) are harder to test.


Because they share their underlying code, getting something to work on
Konqueror means that it will probably work on Safari (or not take much
altering).

One option for testing Konqueror on i386 systems is the Knoppix
self-booting (Debian-based) Linux CD ROM, which has booted to a
functional Linux/KDE system on about 3 out of 4 of the desktop 386 PCs I
have tried it with to date.

The main drawback is the 680Mb download of the ISO image file for the
disk, which takes 4 hours on broadband (and probably two days on
dial-up) (though it can be ordered through the post).

<URL: http://knoppix.org/ >

Richard.
Jul 23 '05 #4
In article <k6**********@hotpop.com>,
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen <lr*@hotpop.com> wrote:
ib*********@yahoo.com (David Logan) writes:
I am taking a website that has been developed for IE browsers running
on Windows systems to a multi platform multi browser site. What
versions of what browsers is reasonable to have to work with.


All current and future browsers.


No need to go insane with it, however. If your project goes over budget
by 20% because you're struggling to support version 3 browsers, well,
that's just plain ridiculous.

4 is a good cutoff point. The science museum here in Boston supports
nothing older than Netscape 4.7, and they are sticklers for compliance.

A lot of schools still use 4.x versions, but anything prior to that
really should be off your radar.
Jul 23 '05 #5
Richard Cornford wrote:
One option for testing Konqueror on i386 systems is the Knoppix
self-booting (Debian-based) Linux CD ROM, which has booted to a
functional Linux/KDE system on about 3 out of 4 of the desktop 386 PCs I
have tried it with to date.

The main drawback is the 680Mb download of the ISO image file for the
disk, which takes 4 hours on broadband (and probably two days on
dial-up) (though it can be ordered through the post).


Knoppix CD-ROMs sometimes come with PC magazines and on exhibitions (I got
my four copies [for friends, family and me :)] of Knoppix 3.4 at the CeBIT
this year) as well. And yes, it is great, especially for *x beginners and
as a backup system.
PointedEars
Jul 23 '05 #6

This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion.

Similar topics

7
by: Szar | last post by:
JS noob. I've seen plenty of browser detection scripts but they all seem to be slightly different and don't really fit my needs. I have various places where if the browser is IE I'd like to display...
16
by: Java script Dude | last post by:
To all Mozilla JS Guru's (IE dudes welcome), I have spent the last three years developing complex DHTML applications that must work in IE 5.5sp2+ but I use Mozilla 1.3+** to do all my...
17
by: lawrence | last post by:
How is it possible that the question "How do I detect which browser the user has" is missing from this FAQ: http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/index.phtml/fid/125 and is only here on this...
8
by: R. Smits | last post by:
I've have got this script, the only thing I want to be changed is the first part. It has to detect IE version 6 instead of just "Microsoft Internet Explorer". Can somebody help me out? I tried...
4
by: Paul W | last post by:
Hi - can someone point me to info on the issues/resolutions of supporting the safari browser? To help me understand, if I was developing pages in say FrontPage, what attributes would I set for...
15
by: CMM | last post by:
So I'm half way through overseeing a large project in ASP.NET 2.0. My superiors have decided that it would be nice if we ensured the site worked on all the major platforms (as they see it: IE,...
17
by: FAQ server | last post by:
----------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQ Topic - How do I find the size of a browser window?...
27
by: David Golightly | last post by:
This is just a quick poll for all you web devs out there: What browsers do you test on/are concerned about compatibility with? Obviously, you're going to test on current-generation browsers such...
10
by: Conrad Lender | last post by:
In a recent thread in this group, I said that in some cases object detection and feature tests weren't sufficient in the development of cross-browser applications, and that there were situations...
0
by: DolphinDB | last post by:
Tired of spending countless mintues downsampling your data? Look no further! In this article, you’ll learn how to efficiently downsample 6.48 billion high-frequency records to 61 million...
0
by: ryjfgjl | last post by:
ExcelToDatabase: batch import excel into database automatically...
0
by: jfyes | last post by:
As a hardware engineer, after seeing that CEIWEI recently released a new tool for Modbus RTU Over TCP/UDP filtering and monitoring, I actively went to its official website to take a look. It turned...
0
by: ArrayDB | last post by:
The error message I've encountered is; ERROR:root:Error generating model response: exception: access violation writing 0x0000000000005140, which seems to be indicative of an access violation...
1
by: PapaRatzi | last post by:
Hello, I am teaching myself MS Access forms design and Visual Basic. I've created a table to capture a list of Top 30 singles and forms to capture new entries. The final step is a form (unbound)...
1
by: Shællîpôpï 09 | last post by:
If u are using a keypad phone, how do u turn on JavaScript, to access features like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram....
0
by: af34tf | last post by:
Hi Guys, I have a domain whose name is BytesLimited.com, and I want to sell it. Does anyone know about platforms that allow me to list my domain in auction for free. Thank you
0
by: Faith0G | last post by:
I am starting a new it consulting business and it's been a while since I setup a new website. Is wordpress still the best web based software for hosting a 5 page website? The webpages will be...
0
isladogs
by: isladogs | last post by:
The next Access Europe User Group meeting will be on Wednesday 3 Apr 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC+1) and finishing by 19:30 (7.30PM). In this session, we are pleased to welcome former...

By using Bytes.com and it's services, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

To disable or enable advertisements and analytics tracking please visit the manage ads & tracking page.