Dr. Chan is correct on this one. Designing for IE6 is fine, especially if you are pressed for time. Several reasons why:
1. If your application design is good, and data layers are distinct from presentation layers, the browser you choose is a mute point. Making the application work on other platforms means you just touch the presentation layer objects. 2. Using IE 6 will help get the application adopted in hosptials very quickly, because many desktops in health care organizations in the U.S. are using or will be using IE6. So, addressing IE6 is a very good strategy. 2.5 End users will give you a blank stare of you mention Zope/UNIX or anything that lives in the cold room, but if you mention that it works on IE6, it's often the only thing they are interested in. 3. Cross-compatability problems can be addressed by using as much of a Lowest Common Demoninator subset of HTML that is practical. 4. Microsoft wants the browser to be used to integrate the desktop, and I don't suspect that Dr. Chan has designed his appliations to use any of the desktop integration features (like embedded COM objects). 5. I believe IE6 is still based on Mozilla. Generally, I favor the use of Java applets and Java applications to provide functionality beyond basic web page design. There are just too many differences between browsers, so you play on the strengths of a browser where it implements the open standards well. Richard Schilling Webmaster / Web Integration Programmer Affiliated Health Services Mount Vernon, WA USA http://www.affiliatedhealth.org phone: 360.856.7129 > -----Original Message----- > From: Dr. David H Chan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 3:41 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: OSCAR update, was Re: Medical open source in Malaysia > > > Thankyou Douglas! I was beginning to wonder if this forum is > all about not > having anything to do with M$! My first Open Source project > MUFFIN was based > on a commercial product called Advanced Revelation and I > don't think MUFFIN > users (and collaborators) were particularly turned off just > because it had > to be installed on a Novell or Microsoft server (I was not > aware it will run > on a Linux server). Anyways, OSCAR smokes in a very large and complex > teaching clinic. It's not a toy. I would love to hear from > some of you who > would bother to load up IE6 and give me your honest opinion. > > David > > David H Chan, MD, CCFP, MSc > Assistant Professor > Department of Family Medicine > McMaster University > > > > > If Dr Chan can produce some running server side code that > is GPL'd I don't > > think the fact that version 0.x is only compatible with one > browser makes > > its discussion entirely OT. > > > > Obviously, it would be great if someone could help him out > with extending > > his current application's functionality cross-platform. > > > > If the required source can be supplied in usable form, > development support > > will hopefully follow. > > > > Regards to all, > > > > D. > > > > -- > > Douglas Carnall > > > > tel:+44 (0)20 7241 1255 > > fax:08700 557879 > > mob:07900 212881 > > http://www.carnall.org/ > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >
