Re: [Dynapi-Dev] Netscape 6 discussion

[Doug M. <do...@cr...>]

I just wanted to add my support to what was said here.


>
> >Leading to my real question: should DynAPI keep supporting "old" 4.x
> >browsers? is there any need for it?
>
> At least in my world there is.
> If, for instance, the DynAPI stopped supporting NS 4.x, and/or IE 4.x I
> would
> certain would stop using it.

I would be forced to move on myself.

> People forget that usually, a client, particulary, a BIG Client, when
> specifiying
> the Browser target for his/her web page, usually wants to target IE4.x and
> NS 4.x

VERY true.. In fact, I have had to argue, plead and even beg to get a client
to
give up their hopse of supporting 3.x browsers..
(Don't ask them why they should support 3.x..
someone told them sometime that the should.... )
:-)

> Trust me, they don't care if the latest statistics show 90% of the Market
> using
> IE, they care about the other 10% too, because they want all the users to
be
> able
> to access their site.

In the case of my first client, the everage over-seas order exceeds $20,000
CDN.
If you are telling one in 4 people that 'sorry you can't order from us',
that can add up to a lot of "lost" money.. or so it seems the the business
man..

>Some months ago I did some HTML optimization for the
> team
> that built the site of the biggest telecom company in Portugal, and they
> demanded
> that we should maintain IE 3x and NS 3x compatibility!

I feel for you friend.. :-)

> I do think that the main problem is not supporting NS and IE, it's
> supporting
> a) IE 4.x, IE 5.0, IE 5.5 on Win32
> b) IE 4.x, IE 5.5 on Mac
> c) NS 4.x
> d) NS 6
>
> If you look closely there's more IE versions out there that NS versions
(at
> least
> from a pratical point of view). Most users are very lazy, and if you look
at
> most
> statistics, and if their version of Win has IE 4, or IE 5.0 they stick to
it
> until
> they cannot view a page decently, and only then they upgrade, because 15Mb
> downloads
> are still out of the question for the great majority.
>
> I don't know if NS 4 is the same on Linux, Win32 and Mac, so this view
maybe
> a bit biased or incomplete.
>
> You can't ignore 4.x versions as long as there's millions using them, just
> as you

Certain departments of the canadian government STILL use older version of
NS,
of course they actually had to pay for their licenses..

> can't start developing for a 1024x768 while there's millions using smaller
> screen
> sizes (actually 800x600 is still the most widely used screen size...)

One of the part-time writers for www.allthewhile.com (my news, site..
shameless plug? .. :-)
still works at 640x480..

Not only that, but realy should start wondering how their site will look on
web TV
of on the many hand-held Internet devices comming onto the market..
> I work in a Web Design and Development so I deal with this problem all the
> time,
> and I can safely say that professionaly, we're gonna have to deal with 4.x
> browsers
> a long time still.
>
> If the move was to end supporting 4.x browsers, I think most people will
> stop using
> it professionaly, and treat it just like a cool thing where you can
develop
> some
> experimental stuff...

Whch I probably would.. :-)

Doug