Target audiences for dynamic content?

If one is going routinely generate dynamic content, what is the minimal or
ideal number of configurations one should author for?

Having been appropriately influenced by this list, I would think two flavors
would do it:
1)	HTML 4.01 strict (CSS heavy, for Lynx, IE 5+, NN 6+, Opera?, and other
user agents that requested it.)
2)	HTML 4.01 transitional (No CSS, for all other browsers).

I understand that, in practice, authors frequented code for the IE 3x, IE 4x
(and up), NN 2x, NN 3x, and NN4x (and up).  More often than not, Lynx (and
other browsers) are not considered, but often a "text-only" manual selection
is available.  Some sites further tweak there pages for Mac versus PC.  If a
site is going to generate content dynamically, do they really need to be
prepared for 11+ different configurations?  This is madness!  I am hoping
that a number of the above distinctions can be safely grouped together, but
not just out of laziness or the convenience of the author.

What user agent configurations are typically considered?
What user agent configurations SHOULD be typically considered?

Yes, I agree with and understand the sentiment that one big attraction of
coding to standards is to avoid having to consider a dozen different user
configurations.  But if one does (not so mindless) fall into this trap, how
far does one need to be prepared to go with this?

I know there are a few people on this list that are strong advocates for
dynamic content and/or tailoring content on their site based on user's
browsers.  How many platforms (and which and why) do you code for?  Yes, I
know there are also strong advocates who say that conditional coding is not
necessary -- iff you know what you are doing.  I am hoping these folks will
sit on their hands for most of this discussion!

--
Thank you.
Bruce Bailey
http://www.dors.state.md.us/

Received on Friday, 16 June 2000 09:55:45 UTC