Dec
8
Why Most Web Developers Loathe Microsoft
Filed Under Technical
I’ve just finished a very frustrating two days trying to figure out why this site, and another one I’m developing will not display correctly on Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7. My partner is sick to death of my rantings (and his own) about this subject, but as two developers who are constantly having to find solutions to the fact that Microsoft blatantly ignores the agreed-upon standards for CSS and produces a browser that renders web content incorrectly.
They’ve actually had the nerve recently to state that their standard is the standard, not getting that corporations don’t set standards; independent international groups do. What Microsoft wants is for everyone to use Active X to do tricky things on web pages, not JavaScript, CSS or Java, because then the web page will work only on a Windows system. They’ve gone as far as to give Active X development tools to many groups, such as those companies who develop the Multiple Listings databases across the country, ensuring that real estate agents must use Windows to access the MLS.
It’s sad that people who aren’t so savvy about computers will buy a Windows system, and use what comes with it for web browsing, when there are better computers (Macs especially) and better browsers (Firefox, Opera, etc.), that will render web content correctly.
The answer to the title of this post: Microsoft, by not following standards, causes web developers to spend two or three times the effort to make a web page that will show correctly on IE6, IE7, and all of the rest of the browsers. So first you get your page to work with Firefox, Opera, Safari (1 hour), and next spend 2 or 3 hours trying to figure out why it doesn’t work on IE.
It’s obvious that this is a strategy taken deliberately. Instead of fixing the bugs, they provide a way for you to include an if/then statement in your code that says “if this browser is IE6, load this style sheet, if it’s IE7 load this one, and if it’s neither load a third one.
They are despicable.
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