OSNews

The planet where people with a life couldn't give a single frak about Acidtwothreetestsbogusnonsensehocuspocus. Does it render teh google maps? Facebook? Redtube.com? Good, means it passed the only test that matters: the real world test. "

That can't be the same planet full of web developers who incessantly bitch all the time about IE's non-compliance with web standards then, and how they code to the standards and then are force to jump through countless torturous hoops to get it to work with IE ... let alone all different versions of IE.

If all browsers worked to standards and had scalable graphics (also to standards) ... then the web is suddenly "code for one, code for all" ... even when that "all" includes tiny screens on handheld devices.

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:GeTL-A7VD0oJ:www.hpl.hp.com/re...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_Independence

http://www.w3.org/TR/di-princ/

It actually matters quite a bit, Thom.

Well, web standards and and acid tests are more about helping developers than users. Users don't really care if a page doesn't render quite right. They care very much when they click and nothing happens, or enter their user name and password, press the button and nothing happens.

Hopefully, web standards and tests will help developers ensure that happens less frequently in the future. But only if Microsoft gets serious about their javascript compliance, which is not a given.

Edited 2008-08-28 00:05 UTC

Well, web standards and and acid tests are more about helping developers than users. Users don't really care if a page doesn't render quite right. They care very much when they click and nothing happens, or enter their user name and password, press the button and nothing happens. Hopefully, web standards and tests will help developers ensure that happens less frequently in the future. But only if Microsoft gets serious about their javascript compliance, which is not a given. "

When you look at the whole of the market of devices that can currently access the web, and the trends in that market (that is, including mobile phones, handhelds, tablets, PDAs and netbook ... all devices with small screens) ... suddenly Microsoft and IE becomes a much smaller part of the picture than many currently assume.

The day is not far off when it will make sense for web developers to just create fully standards-compliant device-independent web pages and simply forward any complaints (from a relatively small part of the total audience) that "the site doesn't work properly on IE <whatever> on Windows" directly to the Microsoft browser development team.

What if Facebook, RedTube and Google Maps include special code for each browser ?

They don't because unlike some fanatics they are normal humans who regonize how important it is to have solid experience instead of perfect technical site. I think that's what IE team also did since IE 8 has some nice features that are more important to users than full standard support. Smart web developers can get thru missing parts of IE 8 browser and yet making working enviroment.