I normally use IE6 on Win XP Pro to code pages in valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
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Bravely, I bought an EMac to view sites I'm building on IE 5.2 for Mac and Safari 1.1.1
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I'm determined to follow Web standards, but the eMac browsers have�got me very confused.
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I read that Safari is about the most standards compliant browser you can get. My ultimate aim is to code for that and fix problems on other browsers.
If you're aiming for standards compliance, **don't start with a browser that poorly supports standards**. Do your initial development on a single standards-compliant browser like Firefox, and validate your mark-up and CSS periodically.
Learn about IE's major problems BEFORE you start coding -- avoiding padding will solve 99% of layout problems. Avoiding and side-stepping these problems during development will mean less headaches later.
Happy? Now have a quick check in the rest of the Mozilla family on both platforms (Mozilla, Firebird, Firefox, Camino), on as many versions as you can get your hands on. Adjust as needed, validate, re-test.
Happy? Now have a look on other browsers that closely support standards, like Opera, Safari, OmniWeb, etc. Adjust as needed, validate, re-test, making sure the Mozilla family doesn't break.
Happy? Now you have a standards compliant site that works in standards-compliant browsers.
But what about IE? Since IE is not standards compliant, the best you can really hope for is graceful degradation -- perfection across all browsers *may* happen, but let's be realistic!
Check your site in IE 5.5 and 6.0 (even 5.0 if you feel it's important). Now apply any hacks [1][2] you need to get IE to look right. Most will be in regards to the box model for layout.
Personally, I keep all hacks and bloat out of my main style sheet, and use an IE-only conditional comment [3] to target IE exclusively with it's own style sheet with overrides my base style sheet with patches for IE.
When I've got more time, I'll document all this properly :)
1. http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=BoxModelHack
2. http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/02/25/sidestepping/
3. http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/ ccomment_ovw.asp
--- Justin French http://indent.com.au
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