Death To Internet Explorer 6! [Internet Explorer]
Kill Internet Explorer 6
Well it's about time.
It's been nearly ten years of toiling over my CSS and Javascript, trying to give my websites a consistent look and feel across the board. Internet Explorer version 6 has been the bane of my existence and the thorn in my hide. My developer friends and I have discussed boycotting it at the risk of losing the eyes of the uninformed millions unknowingly viewing the internet the way it was never meant to be seen. Sure, we might lose their eyes altogether but we'd prefer that over a negative experience.
More recent versions of Internet Explorer aren't as bad and they're getting better at adhering to web standards but there are still some annoying browser-specific quirks we have to deal with every day. All I ask is that people really follow through with this movement.
To read more, click here.
IETester: Test Internet Explorer 5.5, 6, 7 and 8 [Tools]
IE Tester
Today, my buddy Javier (owner of the Online Bill Manager) told me about IETester and I was shocked that A) I'd never heard of it before, and B) how simple it is to use.
If you've ever wanted to test one of your websites for cross-browser compatibility, you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to either use a web service to do it for you or to ask a friend who actually has a crappy older version of IE to check your website for you. In either case, the waiting is the worst part and slows development down to a crawl.
Now although some people have chosen to boycott Internet Explorer (I know I'd be happier if it were gone), I still understand that a large percentage (if not the majority) still use it. Therefore, as web developers, we must test for it and patch our CSS and Javascript accordingly.
IETester makes this an absolute snap.
Although it is buggy, if all you want to do is see how a site looks in Internet Explorer 5.5, you simply open an IE 5.5 tab and go. You can view web pages in Internet Explorer versions 5.5, 6, 7 and 8 all at once. All you have to do is tab between them. Pretty handy, huh?
After tabbing through a few of my websites, I've found a lot of glitches in previous versions of Internet Explorer that I would have otherwise never known about. Of course, my philosophy is that if you aren't at least on IE 7, then you need to get with it. IE 6 was nice and simple but it completely lacks standards support and even IE 7 falls short in the browser war.
In any case, for those of us that work in professional production environments where we are forced to design for versions as old as IE 6, this tool is amazing for just that purpose.
Oh yeah, and did I mention it's free?