Re: Need advice on reliable way to identifyIE asthe browser

Walden,

Sorry I didn't reply. Your post simply never made it to my server, which is freaking me out a bit since that means there could be other emails that never make it to my server as well. I can see it in the archives, but it never made it to my inbox and it is nowhere to be found in my spam filter. Makes me *very* nervous.

Anyhow, the post was theoretical, rather than practical. I guess someone who had an axe to grind with Microsoft and didn't mind losing business could implement logic that would only run on non-MS browsers.

Pete


Alfredo Delgado wrote:

Walden,

IE is riddled with bugs and non-standard implementation of standards. You
have to remember that the purpose of IE was to kill Netscape and protect
Microsoft's desktop monopoly, not to foster an equal playing ground on a
world wide web. If you're unwilling to program in a subset of functionality
common across multiple browsers -- and that IE can do right -- then you have
to use some schemes to deal with IE whether in XHTML, CSS, or JavaScript.

It used to be that lazy developers would develop web sites that'd tie in to
non-standard IE functionality and would block out anyone whose User Agent
didn't report IE. When other browsers duplicated the functionality to deal
with market realities, they'd still be locked out unless they reported it
was IE or IE-compatible to match the string likely being checked. Now that
competition has returned to browsers MS is in a bind to improve IE when
there's tons of code out there expecting it to be broken based on the User
Agent. That's a better example of ugliness.

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 5:22 PM, Walden H. Leverich <WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wrote:

Pete,

Just curious, why would you ever want to be sure it was IE? (as opposed
to being sure it supported whatever function you needed in IE)

-Walden

--
Walden H Leverich III
Tech Software
(516) 627-3800 x3051
WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.TechSoftInc.com

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
(Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)
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