StayGoLinks

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The idea for StayGoLinks did not suddenly flash into my mind while walking with my dog, Sherri. StayGoLinks is the resultant of a thinking and exploration process that did not even include the concept of the Mobile world at the start.

The trigger for all this was the introduction of the Mozilla Firefox browser. By the Fall of 2005, there was a significant proportion of people using this new browser. On average more than 10% of people might be using it and in some technical sectors, the proportion could be very much higher.

Normally such a change might have caused little reaction, but in this case there were a significant number of websites that could not be viewed satisfactorily in this new browser. The reason for this is that there is a very marked difference between Mozilla Firefox and the much more popular browser, Internet Explorer Version 6, as it was at that time. To understand the difference, it is important to understand Quirks and Standards.

The Worldwide Web Consortium encourages the use of Standards, which can ensure that web pages will be rendered (displayed) in predictable ways by web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Opera. When a web page has been developed according to a Standard, then it should be so identified by a Document Type Definition (DTD) Statement at its Head. This ensures that the web browser will interpret the code in accordance with the Standard. The way the web page is rendered will be the way the web designer intended.

If the DTD is absent (so that the applicable Standard is not identified) or the code is full of errors so that it does not represent valid Standards-based code, then the browser adopts what is call a Quirks Mode. Each browser designer develops their own Quirks Mode using their best judgement. So the Quirks Mode is something particular to each browser. A web page rendered in Quirks Mode may well appear different in different browsers. The latest version of Internet Explorer (Version 7) is now in Beta issue and will render Standards-based websites correctly. However previous versions of Internet Explorer did not do so.

Since the majority of Internet users are still using Internet Explorer Version 6 at this time, this forces a website designer to design web pages so that they give a satisfactory viewing experience both in Internet Explorer and in Standards-based browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. This represents quite a challenge for a website designer. It can be quite a chore to do an intensive review of a web page in two or more web browsers. The ‘two or more’ in the previous sentence signals that all browsers render web pages in different ways. Even Standards-based browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Safari (for Macs), all have slight different ways of interpreting the Standards. Usually this does not cause websites to ‘break’ (be unviewable) but may cause slight glitches such as mis-alignment problems.

Checking the same web page in different browsers can also be technically difficult since this may require the use of several computers. Even the same browser in different operating systems such as Windows 2000, Windows XP or Linux can display slightly differently. Staring at the same web page displayed in several formats can almost induce a hypnotic state, not conducive to finding perhaps minor errors in some renderings. It was these difficulties that suggested the need for a different solution. Cre8asite Forums is a community of participants meeting on the Web to Build Better Websites Together. The idea was mooted for a panel of volunteers to review web pages in as many browsers as they could easily access.

William Slawski, an Admin at Cre8asite Forums, thought the idea had merit but was perhaps too limited in concept. Bill has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Internet. He has a very well known blog, SEO By The Sea, and also writes for SearchEngineWatch on search engine patents. He suggested that, with the rapid growth of the Mobile world, the Panel should cover not only cross-browser compatibility but also cross-device compatibility. That apparently simple suggestion opened up what might be dubbed as a ‘real can of worms’.

To be Continued

Tags: Mobile, Standards, Quirks, browser

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 29th, 2006 at 11:02 am and is filed under Mobile, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.