RE: Header, Footer, and Sidebars

On Wed, 26 Nov 1997, Todd Fahrner wrote:

> Benjamin Franz wrote, at 10:06 -0800 on 26.11.97:
>  
> > Whups. Scratch that on the low x NS4.0x. It was the MSIE 4.0b browsers
> > with ActiveX turned off that made the content vanish (I went back and
> > checked my old mail - I reported this to the www-html list back in May). I
> > haven't tried it in the MSIE 4.0 final yet.
> 
> Beta software is supposed to crash: that's the point. If authors concern
> themselves with coding around bugs in beta software, they impede the work
> of the beta testers (you know - 63% of the Web browsing population) and do
> a disservice to the developers, who need to know when spec-compliant inputs
> break their software. This is true to a lesser degree with dot releases,
> isn't it? Users must understand that if they're not running the latest dot
> release, they can expect to encounter problems, for which fixes exist
> already.

No sale. NS finally went to 'drop dead' dates for betas because many
people *don't* upgrade unless forced (I've got hits from *NS 0.9b* in my
log for yesterday!). As for 'dot' releases - people are reluctant to spend
the time to download bug fix releases. According to my stats, over 20% of
*everyone* is still using either NS 3.0 or MSIE 3.0 base release - despite
their age and many known problems. This is in spite of two 'dot' releases
for MSIE 3 and FOUR for NS 3. Basically, as soon as they got to the level
that didn't have a drop dead wired in, they stopped upgrading.

As an *author* it doesn't really matter *why* people continue to use less
than the current 'dot' release: They do and I have to code for it.

-- 
Benjamin Franz