Tim Churches wrote: >It is when **the same application** behaves differently with different >browsers.
>The main difference is between IE behaviour and >netscape/Mozilla/Firefox behaviour This is nothing new. I think it is generally a mistake to assume that a web application *is* the same application when hosted on different browsers. There have always been significant differences between browsers, such that developers aiming for reliable sophisticated high-performance cross-platform web applications must either devote a great deal of resources towards understanding and masking/avoiding those differences or they must target a narrow range of browsers and browser versions - or both. Many of the differences have become less significant over the years as standards have improved and browsers have become more standards compliant. Some of the less obvious yet tremendously important differences between browsers have been in their security policies and mechanisms, cache handling, and reliability. >if all the >users of your Web app always access it from the same browser, then it is >not an issue, but if you can be sure of that, then a desktop GUI app >might have been a better bet. I disagree. The key here in my opinion is that Mozilla/Firefox does provide a practical standard basis for building and maintaining reliable cross-platform applications. It can be easily installed and upgraded on nearly any OS side-by-side with any OS-specific browsers already installed. It does not lock users into any one desktop OS and is remarkably consistent across platforms. You *can* have users accessing your app from essentially the same browser even though they use different OS's. My interest and expertise is centered around web based application interfaces and hospital information systems and more specifically around VMACS (primarily) and VistA. Of course, these subjects are too big to really be expert in much beyond what I have directly worked with, but I have been at it for a long time now. ;) I have been working on development and maintenance of VMACS for over 20 years and for over 10 years on a web based interface for it. VMACS shares some common foundations with VistA, starting with MUMPS and VA Fileman. I have been working in my spare time to apply some of the web based tools developed for VMACS to VistA. (follow the link in my sig for more info) --------------------------------------- Jim Self Systems Architect, Lead Developer VMTH Computer Services, UC Davis (http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/us/jaself)
