Netscape – Internet Explorer CompatibilityI see a lot of posts asking why this doesn’t work in Netscape or why does my page look different in Netscape. That’s to be expected, especially from “newbies”, most of who are using Front Page without bothering to learn HTML first.
I also see a lot of “Netscape Bashing”. I have nothing against “Bashing” Netscape, they have lost their way in my opinion and since Version 3 have been falling further and further behind IE. But that is not a excuse to feed misinformation to the “newbies” who come here for help. I hear a lot of “Netscape doesn’t support style sheets” – Not true, actually NN has about the same level of support for CSS1.2 as IE. Or’ “Netscape doesn’t do DHTML right.” – Again, not true, DHTML is just a combination of JavaScript and CSS. The difference in the way NN & IE address the DOM (Document Object Model) is where the problems occur.
A lot of the questions concerning the difference in NN & IE are table related. In this particular area, it is IE that is at fault. NN requires correct HTML code. IE: An open <TD> or a improperly nest set of tags {<TR><TD></TR></TD>} will cause NN to either not render anything or to render a mess. As it should be. IE on the other hand “anticipates” what the author really meant and renders it as if it were written that way. In my opinion this is wrong! A browser should not decide how an author wanted code, it should parse the code it is fed.
One thing I had a hard time getting used to was Front Page’s Microsoft proprietary way of writing code. IE: I would check “Zero Margins” and expect FP to take care of the code like Net Objects, Dreamweaver, Cold Fusion, Homesite, etc. do and write <BODY marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0"> but FP will only write the IE portion. [Since there is no HTML attribute to the BODY tag for margins, there is no standard].
Netscape & Internet Explorer will show valid HTML pretty much the same and in most cases exactly the same. It is using the proprietary tags of either that causes all of us extra work and headaches.
99% of the time the “problem” is not Netscape related, but HTML related. Bash Netscape for being “user unfriendly”, behind in XML support, slow, and other quirks – but don’t bash Netscape when the problem was caused by poorly written code.
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Gil Harvey
"I keep hitting the 'escape' key - but I'm still here!!!"
Old Hippy Productions, Inc.
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