Comments on: Previewing across platforms?

Question: Previewing across platforms?

j.p. Hung — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:00:50 -0800

Knowing Explorer is no longer being upgraded for macs, how can I best assure browser compatibility across platforms (from a previewing standpoint)?

I was over a friends and noticed a website I had done (in Dreamweaver mx) looked a bit funky. I had previewed it in three browsers on my mac (os 10.3.9) but the same browser (explorer) in a PC (xp) reacted a bit differently. Nothing major; mainly not reading prefs I set for a table correctly but now it has me wondering how I can preview my sites across platforms and browsers. Right now, I don't have the scratch for PC and was curious if there were other ways to ensure compatability.

By: mikel

mikel — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:12:13 -0800

I don't know how useful it would be for as-you-go development work, but Browsercam is pretty great.

By: xil

xil — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:29:51 -0800

Knowing Explorer is no longer being upgraded for macs

This doesn't change the situation at all. IE/Mac has always been a completely different code base from IE/Windows, with its own set of rendering quirks. (Which you've already noticed -- your site looked fine in IE/Mac but wrong in IE/Windows.)

By: mrg

mrg — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:45:39 -0800

cheapest route: Qemu emulating a PC, then install Linux/FreeBSD/etc. on it and get WINE configured and set up. then use WineTools to get the basic Windows enviroment set up in WINE and just use IE 6. this works very well on my actual PC, but it's actually a fast computer. it will be dog slow but usable on the Mac. for bonus points, use Apple's X11 server and have WINE talk to it, so your IE6/Windows apps share the same desktop as your actual computer. (might speed it up a bit too, in fact.)

next cheapest route: eBay a computer, do everything in step 1 minus setting up Qemu. or, use Windows if the computer came with it or you have a license. you don't need a lot to run just IE, and you can probably get something for $50 or so that'll do the job. (heck, I could probably set up an old 466MHz Celeron or something for $25+shipping. or you may be able to craigslist one too - I know my machine's too slow for me to care about using, and there are a lot of machines like that floating around.)

next next cheapest route: Virtual PC. or, bargain basement new PC (like one of the Microtels Walmart sells or the cheapest Dimension you can get). to be honest, a real computer will cost you about the same as VPC with WinXP and it'd be a lot faster.

obvious and already discredited route: buy a decent PC.

(fwiw, having a seperate machine - virtual or not - can sometimes be a boon, especially if you're doing anything dynamic. set up the enviroment so that it's like your web hosts', make a backup, when you screw it up, restore the backup. not as much of a benefit for static work though.)

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:55:19 -0800

1. Buy a cheap PC. Anything will do as long as it has XP Pro pre-installed (Pro is required for step 3).
2. Hook it to your network and hide it in a cupboard.
3. Download a copy of Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (for Macs).
4. Preview sites in Windows Internet Explorer right on your Mac.

By: camworld

camworld — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:55:37 -0800

"...how can I best assure browser compatibility across platforms?"

Code for Firefox or any of the Mozilla-based browsers. If Windows/IE users complain tell them to download Firefox or to email Microsoft and let them know their browser is not standards-compliant.

By: j.p. Hung

j.p. Hung — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 13:04:02 -0800

thanks everyone...l appreciate the input!

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 13:08:52 -0800

Position is Everything is a good resource for working around issues with Internet Explorer for Windows.

There are also differences between how Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6 display things (and probably 7, which is coming soon). You can install multiple versions of Explorer.

By: misterbrandt

misterbrandt — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 13:13:52 -0800

"...how can I best assure browser compatibility across platforms?"

A little more practically/realistically, code for Firefox/Mozilla/Gecko, and then add hacks to accomodate IE, not the other way around. I recall a good "best practices" article related to this theme, but I a quick google did not locate it.

Or, some ways to avoid cross-browser hacks entirely.

By: joeclark

joeclark — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:54:13 -0800

Write valid code first, add hacks second. You are not per se coding for "browser compatibility"; you are not writing for individual browsers in the first instance. That's 1997-era thinking.

By: Sharcho

Sharcho — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 23:23:19 -0800

Check out /IE7/, which is a JavaScript that makes MSIE more compliant with CSS standards.

By: misterbrandt

misterbrandt — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:57:29 -0800

This article by Roger Johannson ("Writing cross-browser CSS") is a nice summary of the issues and best practices. (And was written in response to "Cross-browser strategies for CSS")

And (of course) what joeclark said.