Re: [WSG] Yep, going slowly insane

[Universal Head]

OK folks, here's my take this afternoon, I'll be interested in your 
opinions.

I'm a one-man design company, have been for almost ten years. I've been 
making sites and learning the latest tools (not only for the web, but 
for 3D, print and motion graphics) all that time. So I've course I've 
embraced web standards. But frankly, despite the evangelical cries of 
it's supporters, I don't think CSS is ready for prime-time yet. Sure, 
for some sites and some uses, it's great. But for a moment, let's be 
hard headed about this, and think about a person running a business. 
Due to the mess that browser render engines and their support of CSS 
are in, developing CSS sites is taking at least twice the amount of 
time it would normally. And the cold hard fact is, even if you explain 
the advantages to a client, most of them really couldn't care less if 
you made the site with an old paintbrush, some chewing gum and a piece 
of string, as long as it looks and works great and does what they 
wanted it do. Which is what all the sites I've made, relatively quickly 
and relatively easily - using tables - have done in the past.

So for someone like me, trying to make a living and trying to have some 
cashflow, why make fully CSS sites unless I can persuade the client to 
PAY EXTRA for the advantages that CSS sites bring, and to make it 
worthwhile for me as I spend the extra hours compensating for obscure 
browser bugs and massaging the site into something that will work on 
even just the major latest ones. And not many clients will want to do 
that.

I'd be interested in any and all - short of out-and-out abusive  
-feedback on these thoughts. Maybe you'll just say "stop yer whining 
and keep workin' ", but I think, from the discussions I've had with 
others, that I'm not alone. I believe in the future of CSS. I just 
don't believe that I can afford as a person running a business to spend 
the time compensating for the crappy support of it at the moment.

BTW, I may feel completely the opposite after I've got out of her and 
had three beers (any minute now).
Peter

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