Browser Compatibility Rant

so i think i’ve finally managed to get all the blogger doodahs to blog out onto the page in the right font face and size. you gotta really, really, really wanna make things consistent to stick with it long enough to get things right. it’s a shame how hard it is to make a consistently professional-looking page. i mean, think about it. it doesn’t matter what word processor you use. you can get a nice looking page with any of them. even allowing for differences in printers and the paper you put in them, you get something that looks nice.

we’re in a world where html wysiwyg is more like wysiwymgoagd (wysiwy might get on a good day). maybe you have to look at all of this as a product of the competition in the browser world. but frankly, i’d rather support a browser that played nicely with the rules. the bells and whistles don’t interest me.

of course, my preference doesn’t really matter. it’s all about what everyone else uses. a page has to work for whoever may come along and want to read it. it’s about the audience, not the author. and as long as people are blocked from making personal choices by administrators and IT folks, individual preferences are going to be limited.

maybe i’m overly pessimistic. ok, i am overly pessimistic. just ask anyone who knows me. the thing is on this issue, i’d really like to be more optimistic. when i came to blogger and started playing around with the pages, i really wanted to believe that the system could work for a variety of people (and therefore, a variety of browsers and platforms). that kind of optimism just gets anyone designing for the web into trouble though. it’s a sad reality of the way the computer world works right now.