Re: browser versions

|make a note of this somewhere.
|Although I understand the need to continue the quest for new and improved
|HTML code, consider that a majority of the commercial web sites out there
|must design for different versions of the same browsers (specifically
|Netscape and IE). Creating new standards is great, but making those new
|standards while removing the old ones is not a good idea. Somewhere someone
|is not going to upgrade to Netscape 4.07 when their version of 3.01 is
|working fine. Isn't there a way to improve the code while leaving the
|existing source active for the earlier browser versions?
|Seems a bit tyrannical otherwise don't you think? Just an opinion.

Yes, compatibility with as many browsers as possible is a MUST for a
corporate web site, simply because if the corporation cannot meet the demand
for information from the site (which can be hampered by sites requiring the
latest browsers) then the company may suffer.
HOWEVER, frames, for example, are used on a number of websites, even though
frames were never a standard in w3c HTML specs until HTML4.
If amateurs and hobbyists use the new specs, certainly, no harm will come to
them. They feel better about how "hi tech" their work is to boot. When
enough users have the new browsers to see these sites, for any number of
reasons, (including the possibility that the site is maintained by a
personal friend of the user,) then it becomes "socially acceptable" for
corporations to use some more advanced HTML.
However, I completely agree with what an acquaintance of mine, who is a
professional, told me: "At our site, there are a lot of things to navigate,
but with the way it's set up, you could fairly easily find your way around
with even an old cpy of Mosaic." Some corporations will undoubtedly need
this functionality. Hobbyists don't. However, everything that prospers in
this world grows, and changes in form. The Web undoubtedly will follow this
model. I am confident that even in a time where great change is promised
(including the introduction of XML,) the w3c and browser vendors will do a
good job making sure that everyone can view as much World Wide Web content
as possible.
[Inanis]

Received on Thursday, 14 January 1999 18:31:11 UTC