[Closed] Browser specific web pages - why?

because council dev departments have to force support for the default /gov browser which is still ie6. the are some standarts that are forced down from higher up that aren't big or clever but are still forced.

Big problem is that although there is a standard set ip html tags, Well actually more than one if you include things like HTML 4, HTML 5 etc.

But the browser manufacturers and in particular Microsoft decided they knew better and started to invent there own tags. So to make a web page work on different web browsers you have to use different tags. And this is before you start to look at plugins and the like. So Web accessible applications, such as CRM's only work on some browsers.

The worst offender being IE6 when Microsoft ignored everyone else to try and kill off all the other browsers. Government IT departments decided to follow Microsoft. I suppose you have to justify those lobbyists and contracts after all.

I'm well aware of the issues caused by ie6, but it's no excuse. Not when writing a web page for users where ie6 usage is less than 0.1% (is anybody in the real world still using ie6?) Not when it's easy enough to write pages which work on everything.

Webdevs should test for functionality rather than test for browser revisions (user-agent strings). It's lazy, basically.

I get so cross with sites that say "you need to change your config to what we want" - no, you need to design your site properly.

is anybody in the real world still using ie6?

As has already been said, government does because their internal systems haven't been tested with anything higher. Probably the same in a lot of corporate environments too.

There's little excuse for it really, but that's the way it is currently.

You need to design your site properly

Lazy basically

Having spent the last 3 days trying to get ie to render a site properly across 2 different versions I find these comments amusing.

As has already been said, government does because their internal systems haven't been tested with anything higher. Probably the same in a lot of corporate environments too.

I'm not talking about people in government or companies - I'm talking about the users of this page who are parents at home. Completely pointless writing it for ie6 when that's something none of the user base have.

There's no excuse at all for it.

Having spent the last 3 days trying to get ie to render a site properly across 2 different versions I find these comments amusing.

l2code n00b.

FWIW, I feel your pain. I got out of webdev for a reason.

I'm not talking about people in government or companies

It's a .gov.uk site. I doubt they had a lot of choice in the matter.

(Interestingly, the second link appears to have a broken server cert too, unless that's just me)

FWIW, I feel your pain. I got out of webdev for a reason.

So did I, yet here I am unpicking CSS. 😆

A bit like Glastonbury Festival's ticket registration site. In order to select a photo of yourself, you have to have Flash to click on the button.
How many people are going to take a photo of themselves using the front camera on their phone/tablet, then find they can't send it from that device?
It makes our web guy at work seeth with frustration.

So did I,

It's a bloody millstone. Actually getting away from it is stupidly difficult.

when by some measures it's now the most popular browser?

What measures are you using? IE (8) is still our most popular browser by a decent margin.

Despite the fanbois frothing Macs and iPads are still relatively minor in the browser world (yes, they are getting bigger), and most internet users are probably on Windows XP, either with IE6 (or IE8 if they've allowed updates).

Don't even get me started on CSS3 and having to make IE look exactly the same too despite not supporting it....

You lot seem with it on the pooter front. We had an email from our website hosting company saying we had unopened tickets. Not really needing a ticket I ignored it. When we had an email saying they were going to close the site I thought I had better have a look. Since when has a message been called a ticket? Since when has merely deleting mail not been enough, you then have to purge the deleted messages.
Jeeeeez some of you pooter boys must have a real grudge against normal people.
Please be nice to us and talk in a language that non trekkies can understand.
I know its not your fault but you were nearest!

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers ]By some measures chrome is the most popular browser[/url]

It's a .gov.uk site. I doubt they had a lot of choice in the matter.

They were forced to write something which doesn't work in Chrome? Are they also not allowed to do requirements capture or have a user requirements phase when developing for government?

most internet users are probably on Windows XP, either with IE6

Seriously? I'd be very surprised if that's the case for either XP or IE6. I googled browser stats and ended up at the page garrrrpirate gives a link to. Digging a bit deeper http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-GB-monthly-200807-201206 gives the UK stats - OK so IE is still in the lead but not by much and not for long. http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-GB-monthly-200807-201206 gives the OS stats which XP down at ~20% with W7 at ~50%. Oh and http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-GB-monthly-201107-201206 gives the stats for browser versions in the UK - can you spot the IE6 line? Or how about you check out the most popular browser version... Even http://www.ie6countdown.com/ suggests UK IE6 usage is down to 1.1% (surely almost all of that is corporate and government rather than parents doing school admissions).

A bit like Glastonbury Festival's ticket registration site. In order to select a photo of yourself, you have to have Flash to click on the button.
How many people are going to take a photo of themselves using the front camera on their phone/tablet, then find they can't send it from that device?
It makes our web guy at work seeth with frustration.

Anyway time to get shot of IE6 mostly still used by people in big government departments who should be doing some work not surfing the internet!

I've drafted an email. Just wondering whether to point out that I do IT support at the school I want to apply to (and would be embarrassed if our systems were that rubbish).

I bet you would be surprised how tied the hands of the devs are by a combination of corp/gov policy and havign to support legacy systems and code.

Does my nut in on a daily basis, honestly most devs would absolutely *love* to produce something that worked in all browsers in exactly the same way and looked the same, that would be lovely, but the reality is it's often not as easy as you think from your side of the fence, and the bigger/more corporate/governmenty you are the worse it becomes.

I bet you would be surprised how tied the hands of the devs are by a combination of corp/gov policy and havign to support legacy systems and code.

That is just about acceptable on inwardly-facing corporate intranet sites where everyone (in theory) uses the same browser so there is no point wasting effort supporting others.

But on public-facing internet sites it is completely inexcusable. If I stumble onto a shop/service that doesn't support my browser then I just go elsewhere. Simple as that.

It really isn't that hard to create a standards-compliant webpage that displays properly in modern browsers (yes I have done some web development)

Might be an organisation like mine where the web developer left over a year ago and hasn't been replaced.