This week I started a project (which hasn’t released yet but is very close) that needed to have a clean look and be cross browser (as most projects do require). I started out designing it to have rounded corners and a drop shadow, but do to time constraints I couldn’t make every section by hand. So I remembered about this new technology coming to the web development world called CSS3 and that some commonly used browsers implement a rounded corners feature making it as easy as one three lines of code to make put it on everything I needed. They are:
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;
border-radius:5px;
This new ability is making my life so much easier with simple things as rounded corners. So I searched a bit more and found that there was another look-and-feel item I wanted to use coming to the CSS3 standard, drop shadows. So I put that in as well. There was only one problem… The second most used brand of browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer), doesn’t implement ANY CSS 3 features. They’re stuck in the old days still, even after just releasing their newest and ‘greatest’ browser (IE8). So my debate came from wondering if I should cater to that crowd and give them hand made round corners and drop shadows to keep the look-and-feel as constant as possible. I ended up deciding against it for several reasons.
1. I didn’t want to enable a browser that was outdated before it was even released
2. I want to give those who do addapt to web standards complaint browsers a ‘treat’.
3. I just didn’t want to spend hours making the hacks and images to make it work in IE.
So if your a web developer who stumbled upon this, I encourage you to do the same and not even bother hacking together scripts and images to fit IE’s faulty layout engine.
And if your a casual web user, I suggest grabbing a new browser, they’re all free, just chose one that works for you. The three most popular web standards complaint browsers are: FireFox (my personal favorite), Safari, and Opera.
Also, if I may suggest a site for all you out there try http://www.BrowseHappy.com
Thanks and Happy Browsing!
