RE: info center search. III.

> From: Lou Forlini
>
>     These are the kinds of sites that I avoid like the plague.  It
> takes a certain amount of impudence to dictate what software I should
> use just because the web "designer" doesn't have the necessary skills
> to create a decent web page.
>
>     What it tells me is that the company doesn't particularly want my
> business.  And I'm always happy to oblige.

I've kept out of this discussion until now, but this particular comment has
raised my hackles.  You're somehow equating your decision to use a less
popular browser with my development skills, and frankly, that's so arrogant
as to be laughable.

As a web software developer, I know full well the idiosyncracies of the
various browsers.  It's not a matter of skill that determines whether it
makes sense to have full cross-browser compatibility.  That's because those
of us with real experience in web design know that it goes far beyond a few
simple differences in tags.  Most important is how events are handled, which
differs wildly from one browser to another.

While it's easy enough to create a static web page that has reasonable
cross-browser compatibility, it is all but impossible to add any kind of
reasonable functions to a browser without running into some severe
differences from one to another.

Try to enable the function keys on a web page.  Or make a field upper-case
only.  Any non-trivial techniques require a long and arduous testing process
that, due to the ever-changing landscape, the sorry state of the
documentation and the lack of a decent debugging facility, is largely a
trial and error process.

There is no - and I repeat NO - simple way to handle events cleanly across
all browsers.  The fundamental architecture between IE and Mozilla is so
entirely non-compatible as to make it easier to try and sense the
appropriate browser and then generate a completely different page for each
one.

Of course, then you have to deal with browser spoofing, where a browser
pretends to be something it is not.

Finally, if you're going to be completely adamant about your position that
you should be able to use whatever software you like, then try to wander the
web using Lynx for awhile and tell me how easy it is.

No, an unbending requirement that I triple my development effort so that YOU
can use whatever obsolete or unpopular piece of software you choose is
completely and utterly unreasonable.

On the other hand, whenever I tell someone I can modify my software to use a
different browser if they're willing to pay the development costs, they
suddenly seem to be less fanatical about the concept.  Because when it comes
time to put their money where their idealism is, it's not so darned
important anymore.

So sure, rattle on about how I don't want your business.  If it's because
you're unwilling to use an industry standard, whether it's de facto or not,
and unwilling to compensate me for the time to support your quirks, then
you're absolutely right.  Because in reality, you want something for
nothing, and the fact of the matter is that there ain't no free lunch.

Joe