Does anyone remember the CF_FIX_NETSCAPE tag that was in the developer's gallery a few years ago? Reported to fix all problems with Netscape, it would check to see what browser you were using and, if it was netscape, it could issue a CF_ABORT tag.
I have written Allaire and now Macromedia many times asking for this to become a native feature of the product. Seriously, a Web site should be compliant with various browsers as dictated by their user community. I am responsible for eight sites in three government agencies right now; five of those sites are IE preferred (meaning we design exclusively for IE), because less than 1% of the hits each month come from browsers other than IE. On the other hand, at another unnamed govt agency, the standard Web browser is NS 3. 95% of users have it and use it daily. Mike -----Original Message----- From: Mike Alberts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 7:46 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: SOT: Is the Netscape browser still a consideration? I just had to get in on this one ....... While there really isn't much debating that the browser war is over (which is as much Netscape's fault for releasing junk as it is Microsoft's for predatory practices), IMHO anyone that doesn't account for some 4.x version of Netscape when developing sites (intranets aside of course) is just being lazy and not doing their job. Those of us that have been developing for a fair amount of time have been fighting with this since day one. It's called site usability. We as developers I think tend to get tunnel vision. Just because we are technically adept we think that the average person is as well. The reality is that the average joe on the web just wants to read his email, find a good deal on Ebay, do a little research on products, and keep up with his/her favorite hobbies, and read the latest news. And he/she is doing it on a 56k modem. They don't care if they have the latest and greatest browser. What they have is working (as far as they know), and they don't want to wait for 4 hours to download the latest piece of bloatware. I for one am all for standards. It would be great if we didn't have this mess to deal with. But then there's reality. The reality is we have had to deal with this for years, and it isn't going away for awhile. While it is part of our job description to keep up with technology, the average person just doesn't want to deal with the headaches. There are millions of people still using older browsers at 800x600 (and even 640x480) resolution. If developers spent a little more time making their sites usable for the average person, instead of incorporating all this Flash and fancy imagery and DHTML and all this other stuff that people don't want to wait 5 minutes to download, the web would be a better place for everyone. Granted, these things have their place, and their time will come, but not until the average user is using something a little better than a simple dialup connection. And I don't see that happening anytime too soon. People just want to find their information, they don't want to wait all day for it to download, and they want it to be viewable with the browser they are using. not the one the developer tells them they need. The internet worked fine when it was a bunch of geeks writing basic HTML, and just because the world of print and multimedia designers on their Macintosh computers decided that we could do all this fancy design and Flash and all this other wiz bang stuff doesn't mean that it's necessarily the right thing to do. My .02, and sorry for ranting Mike Alberts > Tue, 19 Feb 2002 22:42:59 -0500 > From: "Rey Bango" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: SOT: Is the Netscape browser still a consideration? > Message-ID: <019b01c1b9c0$b18928a0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > For the longest time, I've coded my sites to take into account Netscape > users but with the ever-dwindling numbers of Navigator afficianados and IE's > continued growth, I've been wondering if I should even bother worrying about > whether my sites work with Netscape. > > Since this has been one of my best resources for info and some of the most > talented and savvy people that I've met post to CF-Talk, I was hoping that I > could get some good feedback. > > So, if we consider that the apps that I'm developing will be geared towards > the Internet consumer at large and I won't have the luxury of developing for > a controlled environment like a corporate intranet, I beg the question: > > Should I continue to worry about Netscape? If so, which version should serve > as a baseline? > > Looking forward to your responses. > > C-ya, > > Rey... FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ Dedicated Windows 2000 Server PIII 800 / 256 MB RAM / 40 GB HD / 20 GB MO/XFER Instant Activation · $99/Month · Free Setup http://www.pennyhost.com/redirect.cfm?adcode=coldfusiona FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
