What browsers do you test in?

davidjam

I assume this thread already exists somewhere but I am too lazy to find it.

I'm just curious what browsers/platforms people test their sites in. Presently I am building in Firefox for Mac, and test in:

» IE for Mac,
» Netscape for Mac,
» Safari for Mac,
» Firefox for Windows, and
» IE for Windows (of course).

Also I have had almost constant frustration with Opera's rendering, so much so that I decided to declare it a piece of sh*t and never look at it again (open to disagreement on this note 🙂). Well that's my rundown...

pohopo

I test on IE for windows and Firefox for windows. I try not to get too crazy with the javascript and css so I know it will work in most browsers.

goldbug

Originally posted by davidjam
Also I have had almost constant frustration with Opera's rendering, so much so that I decided to declare it a piece of sht and never look at it again

I'm almost at that point with Opera myself.
Usually I test on:

Firefox (Windows)
Firefox (OS X)
Firefox (Linux)
IE 6
IE 5.5
IE 5.01
Safari
Konqueror
Lynx
Opera (Windows)
Opera (OS X)**

** If something is a little off, but usable, lately I just ignore it in Opera. I know, I know, I'm a bad person because of it.

davidjam

Originally posted by goldbug
If something is a little off, but usable, lately I just ignore it in Opera. I know, I know, I'm a bad person because of it.

No, I think you are just trying to preserve your sanity. I think it's called the art of "letting go". In reading Meyer's latest CSS book where every other feature is noted: "Not compatible with some browsers, notably IE", it gets a little frustrating, like dangling a carrot that you never get to munch on!

Shrike

First and foremost, ensure pages validate to a known specification. After that, ensure pages are as accessible as possible in line with a known WAI guideline. After that comes browser compatibility.

Mozilla and Firefox
IE
Opera

Stuff Mac users (Vaaaska snicker 😃)

Weedpacket

I've been toying with the idea of putting the FoxyVoice on my Windows machine and listening to my pages. But Microsoft Sam is such a nasty voice that I'm not toying with it very hard.

Shrike

Fangs is a (fairly) good plugin for Firefox, if you want to see how a screenreader might read your pages.

Merve

IE and Firefox. (but I often have to use a separate stylesheet for IE...blarg!)

vaaaska

Originally posted by Shrike
Stuff Mac users (Vaaaska snicker 😃)

Is it funny, really? Ok, don't answer that.

😉

dalecosp

Mozilla/FreeBSD
Opera/FreeBSD
MSIE 6/XP&&98

Opera does seem a little difficult to figure sometimes. Part of the problem is the fact that they try to emulate IE, methinks...

Canacas

I notice something i think is very wierd. You state that you test in IE for Mac.. Why?

IE for mac is a discontinued project. It currently stand at version 5.2 witch is highly "bugged" when it comes to reading things that are slighly more advanced than <br>.

No-one should realy use a pice of softwear that they know is out-dated and that it will never be updated to get on line with other products.

Stick to Safari and FireFox when it comes to MAC. 😉 in 1 year IE will be long gone and forgotten on mac. 🙂

Mordecai

Originally posted by Canacas
No-one should realy use a pice of softwear that they know is out-dated and that it will never be updated to get on line with other products.

IE has been outdated for years, and not just IE/Mac. It has almost 90% of the browser market. So, that just goes to show you how much people use out-dated software.

Weedpacket

If I do recall my ancient history, though, IE5/Mac was better than IE5/Win when it comes to correct rendering behaviour. And IE5.2/Mac is still significantly better than IE6/Win (although that is clearly a case of damning with faint praise).

hkucsis

Win IE5+
Win NS6+

For other combinations, I don't care! 😃

vaaaska

Originally posted by hkucsis
Win IE5+
Win NS6+

For other combinations, I don't care! 😃

Really? Wow, you sure are doing a dis-service to your clients. You ever hear about standards?

Wow, really...kind of shocked that people still think like this...

davidjam

Originally posted by dalecosp

Opera does seem a little difficult to figure sometimes. Part of the problem is the fact that they try to emulate IE, methinks...

It looks to me like they put the look and behaviour of the operating system ahead of regular css styling and at times try to combine the two, which generally looks most undesireable.

Per WPs comment, here is the plug from w3c/css page re: IE:

2001-12-19 Microsoft released Internet Explorer for the Mac 5.1, with bug fixes and improved performance. Supports full CSS1 and partial CSS2. (Mac IE 5 was the first browser to reach better than 99% support for CSS1, in March 2000.) (free; Mac OS 8, 9 & X)

That's pretty old, for one thing, and secondly, without proper support for CSS2 the real power of CSS is still being thwarted. Anyone want to volunteer for a martyrdom mission against the Microsoft facilities? All we need is a 747 and maybe some radioactive waste in the cargo 😉

dalecosp

Originally posted by davidjam
Anyone want to volunteer for a martyrdom mission against the Microsoft facilities? All we need is a 747 and maybe some radioactive waste in the cargo 😉

You mean my avatar's not enough?

Maybe if I drank $liquid? (But, hmm, that might be real dangerous.)

Weedpacket

Originally posted by davidjam
Per WPs comment, here is the plug from w3c/css page re: IE:
...

That's pretty old, for one thing, and secondly, without proper support for CSS2 the real power of CSS is still being thwarted.

Yep, and despite that, IE/Mac is still further ahead of the game than IE6/Win!

But that's not surprising. IE6 is even older than IE5.1/Mac.

hkucsis

Originally posted by vaaaska
Really? Wow, you sure are doing a dis-service to your clients. You ever hear about standards?

Wow, really...kind of shocked that people still think like this...

I'm a in-house developer. Everything in my company is M$ based. The "standard" here is IE. I already have been very kind to support NS6. 😃

piersk

Originally posted by hkucsis
I'm a in-house developer. Everything in my company is M$ based. The "standard" here is IE. I already have been very kind to support NS6. 😃

I think thats fair enough. If IE is the only browser being used then theres not much point in testing in anything else; unless you're bored and feel like a challenge.

Just out of question, if it's all in house, why even bother with NS6?