4 replies to this topic

[maleman]

Hi Compadres and Compadresses,

I was sifting through a bunch of website templates a few days ago. I tested the templates with IE 7, FF 2 and NN4...yes, NN4.

I noticed that pages with XHTML doctypes were displaying rather well in NN4 where other pages with 4.01 doctype were breaking up big-time.

I have no conclusion to draw from this yet but it looks like old browsers like NN4 and others may give a reasonable display with the XHTML doctype. So long as the content is in at least one table cell.

Is XHTML the best doctype to use for new pages? I'm beginning to think so. That's the doctype I've been using for quite a while now. I still don't like <br /> though. I have <br> embedded into my soul for some reason..

[JohneeMac]

Personally use xHTML strict on all sites. Your site has a better chance of standing for a longer time. There is little difference between Transitional and Strict, so for the extra effort Strict is worth it.

You mentioned testing IE7, across all my sites the most popular browser is IE6.

I build the site in FF and get it working 100% in there, then work back to IE7 and IE6 using conditional statements if required.

I see little or no traffic on NN, and 1% in IE5. Those percentage are so small that i now dont bother testing in them now, i used to till 6 months ago.

Depending on the target audience its not a bad idea to get it working in Safari on Mac aswell.

[1dmf]

the most popular browser is IE6

This is worrying if true seings as IE7 is a security update to IE6 , this means the majority of users aren't keeping their computer up-to-date with windows updates.

[torka]

the most popular browser is IE6.

This is what I'm seeing as well. Better than half our visitors are on IE6. The remainder are on IE7 and FF, with a handful scattered across all others.

I build the site in FF and get it working 100% in there, then work back to IE7 and IE6 using conditional statements if required.

Ditto. Fortunately, I haven't run into too many things that work on FF but not IE7, so most of the effort is involved in getting things to work on IE6. Security issues aside, it would make my life 1000% easier if people would just upgrade their browser!

Bless their hearts.

--Torka

[Randy]

Same here on the IE6 -> IE7 observations. As of when I ran stats for all of my sites last week IE6 was still running about double IE7. Which I agree is a troubling sign since IE7 is not just a browser update. It's actively pushed out from MS as one of their security updates, and rightly so. If users are allowing MS security updates they'd have already had IE7 installed for them.

I won't even talk about those few users (sub 1%) who are using one or another version of IE5. They're hopeless IMHO.

FWIW, the largest problems I've seen with IE7 coming on the scene are with existing sites that were using some of the old *html css hacks to take care of browser inconsistencies in IE6 instead of using conditionals as was mnetioned above. Since this type of trigger also triggers for IE7 it can sometimes really bungle a page for IE7 users. Otherwise, IE7 seems to be a lot closer to FF and other browsers in the way it handles most things.