Browsers
The final version of Internet Explorer was launched on March 20th and yet a month has not even passed and it has been announced that the browser will be made available as an automatic update. Of course web developers around the world are rejoicing as this seemingly marks a move towards a simpler life with a more standards compliant IE. But it’s not all so simple.
A few days ago I posted a tweet remarking an issue I get a lot when testing my own/works websites in Opera. I was subsequently asked if I could share a screenshot, it’s been a bit hectic recently but I have finally got round to it. I’m not positive on the causes of the problem but I assume it is related to the way I code and build websites.
As I’ve previously stated I code websites to be content prominent rather than using a traditional top down approach. This effectively moves my header elements to the base of the code and through a mix of positioning techniques, margins and padding I move the website around to position the header back at the top of the page.
The problems itself appears to be a doubling of the space I make available for the header to be positioned into, with all elements, header included, moving down the page by this number. The issue becomes more confusing as refreshing the website can at times correct the issue, inexplicably.
This week saw the launch of Safari 4 beta and as a PC user this would normally pass me by without much thought. However with Safari 3 making the transition to Windows the browser is securing its place as a major player in the browser market irrespective of operating system.
Within the web community Safari has always been a popular choice due to its quick adoption of web technologies and of course being preinstalled on Apple computers which are the ultimate fashion statement for any web geek. As a PC user though I have rarely used the desktop version of the browser outside of testing purposes but must admit version 4 has some nice additions.
Most of Safari 4’s new features are workflow and UI improvements, with the native Windows chrome getting the most coverage, but the feature I have been most interested in is the Developer Tools. Now fully integrated into the browser the Developer Tools are essentially Firebug for Safari with many features present that it’s Firefox cousin boasts but with some nice extras that require extra plugins in Firefox. The presence of this feature will make browser testing and optimisation much easier but having to open the Web Inspector and then dock it to the main window every time you open Safari could get tiresome. Hopefully as Safari moves towards its full release the option to do this as default may appear.
Although the browser is certainly a step in the right direction and may arguably be the best available I will be sticking to Firefox as my main browser. This isn’t because Firefox or its plugins are any better than what is available elsewhere but it’s the fact that it’s all in one place. I have a browser set to my preferences, with the right plugins, settings and bookmarks as well as the knowledge of how to use the browser that all together gives me what I need to do my job quickly and effectively.
This October (2008) saw the SitePoint publication of ‘Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong’ written by Rachel Andrew and Kevin Yank. Though I’ve yet to read the book its contents have been making there way onto an array of web development sites such as thinkvitamin.com. What the book essentially aims to promote is a way of building web layouts using a techniques known as CSS Tables. Without getting into too much depth the techniques allows you to use CSS to define layouts in the same way you’d expect to code a HTML table but using CSS attributes such as display:table-row and display:table-cell.
It is hoped this technique will make it easier for those people still building websites in tables to move to CSS but it’s also seen as an alternative to using float. Floats in CSS were primarily for wrapping text around images, and not for layout. As such this led to issues such as the IE6 double margin issue and the clearfix problem when people started using them for layout.