WebSpinners.com
Small web sites for small businesses and non-profit organizations
 |
About Us |  |
 |
Fees and Quotes |  |
 |
Domain Names |  |
 |
Portfolio |  |
Why browser compatibility?
The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) -- the language in which web pages are written -- is rigorously controlled by internationally supported standards. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for developing and issuing these specifications. Over the years, various standards have been issued, most notably HTML 2.0, 3.2, 4.0, and most recently, HTML 4.01. Each successive version adds more tags (the basic unit of hypertext markup) to increase functionality. Occasionally, older tags are depreciated, meaning that they may not be supported in future releases. Web browsers are supposed to ignore any markup tags that they don't understand, thus insuring downlevel compatibility.However, browser manufacturers, in order to improve their product and stay competitive, often will include support for new tags not included in any W3C standard. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it often drives improvements in later standards. As an example, the <TABLE> tag was first introduced by Netscape®, and only later incorporated into HTML 2.0. The problem arises when different browser manufacturers chose to implement the same functionality using different and often contradictory markup. This occurred far too often during the bitter battle between Netscape® and Microsoft®, when Microsoft® tried to establish its Internet Explorer® as the dominant browser for web surfing.
When browser manufacturers also provide web site development tools, they are naturally inclined to include in their tools support for their own proprietary markup tags. This is most notably the case with Microsoft's Front Page® and the "Save as HTML" option in the MS Office® suite. Unless the people using these tools are intimately familiar with HTML, and take the time to hand edit the resulting HTML page, they are liable to wind up with a web site that displays properly, or is even viewable, only on the target browser. (I have even seen Front Page® created sites that show only a blank page on older Netscape browsers.)
WebSpinners.com has been designing web sites since 1997, and we remember simpler times, when HTML 3.2 was the latest standard and proprietary markup tags were not so much of an issue. We use no proprietary markup tags, relatively few of the tags introduced in HTML 4.0, and make sure that those we do use degrade gracefully on older, pre-HTML 4.0 browsers.
Site and scripts created by: WebSpinners.com (info@webspinners.com)
Webmaster: Donald L. Blanchard.
Phone: 720-937-4829