Off: pop up killer software

[Paul Mather]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2004 at 01:47:50AM -0000, Richard Lockwood wrote:

=> Oh buggrit, here we go again.
=>
=> As a web developer, what standards do I develop for?  WWW standards
=> compliant browsers (ha!) or IE?  Given that less than 5% of users use non-IE
=> browsers - and, to quote Mr Dillon, "5% isn't significant, 5% is an error
=> margin"
=>
=> I can either do what's morally right (develop to standards), or I can
=> develop what 96% (in reality around 99.2% when it comes to sites I've worked
=> on recently) of users can use.
=>
=> No contest.

No contest for me, either.  Running M$IE is a non-issue in my case.
Why?  It won't run on my systems because I use non-x86 hardware.

But then, as you state above, I am in error for not conforming like I
should.  (Points stern finger at self in admonishing fashion for not
being like everyone else.)

=> Right - my point has been made.  I'll develop for my users, and frankly,
=> that means developing for IE.  Yes, there are browser alternatives to IE,
=> some of them very good, but a) none of them are a patch on IE, and b) From
=> my point of view, they should all die, horribly.  I want one browser that
=> all users have got. So I'm happy to go with IE.  Sorry and all that.

Don't be sorry.  Grab the work, now, whilst you can.  When
"Trustworthy Computing" swings into high gear, little independents
like you will be out of a job anyway.  Or, at the very least, begging
the big boys for digital compliance signatures on the fruits of your
labours so other "trustworthy" applications will not consider your
work unclean and untouchable.

So, make hay while the sun shines.

(If you're not promoting standards you're promoting monopolies.
Trustworthy Computing is a monopolist's wet dream come true.)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa