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abbeyvet -> RE: Scroll Bars in Tables... HELP! (2/6/2003 12:47:47)
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quote:
If everyone stopped coding web pages for NN4, do you think people would stop using it? I think that is a serious question, and I think that as long we DO continue designing for it, basically to the exclusion of using CSS/HTML4 to their full extent (not to even mention XHTML!), we are contibuting to our own browser compatiblity problem. I say the time has come to let NN4 go. Of course we do then have a duty to explain the whole thing to our clients, and, in the end, let them make the choice. I am just finishing a site that will be more or less unusable in NN4. Well, thats not true exactly, but it will NOT be pretty. They will be warned - a pop up box will tell them the story and send them for more information about why if they are interested. This site will use CSS for positioning and layout, it will (hopefully!) validate as CCS 2 and HTML 4, AND it is a commercial site. The owners are aware of the implications, as I have started to explain to people that they can do things two ways: 1. Design fully with CSS/HTML 4, using whatever is in the standards and supported by the currently available standards compliant browsers. Effect: Have better FORWARD compatibility, a faster loading site which is more search engine friendly BUT it may be considerably less that perfect looking in NN4 and the occasional thing may not work at all in NN4. OR 2. Design with tables, so that the site is (more or less) the same in all browsers, old and new. Use CSS to the extent that it is supported by older browsers. Effect: Have better BACKWARD compatibility, a site with a heavier footprint that will be more difficult to alter in the future and that cannot incorporate many things that are supported by newer browsers BUT it will be usable in all browsers (for the moment) including older versions of NN. I do think we need to start explaining all this to clients and letting them choose. I started doing it recently - 3 clients so far, 2 have gone for " forget the NN4 people" , one went for the other way. Their choice, I really do not mind either way. But at least the client knows the deal and cannot say later that they did not. It also potentially means another fee for me when the site needs to be totally redone at some point in the future to comply with standards. On the other hand, the compliant sites could potentially be completely redesigned in a day, by editing just the CSS and a few images. I know this opens a major kettle of fish for FP users who are not good at writing code or at CSS, which is a great pity. I well remember reading a post by Gil, a long time ago, when he said that the font tag would be deprecated and we needed to start using CSS for styling text. I was so horrified I literally hyperventilated!! [:@] But I can' t remember now when I last used a <font> tag, other than to have a quick look at how something looked in a different style. I REALLY hope that in the next version of FP they will have a way for people to layout pages using valid CSS rather than relying on tables, because tables are on the way out as a layout method. That' s just a fact.
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