> It's been an NN vs. IE thing for years

The main problem was that Nn was built on  Feet of Clay. Unlike IE they
used a switch model for displaying a page rather than building a tree. IOW
they started at the top and just displayed the web page as it appeared. OTH
IE used an Object Orientated approach, and each element in the program was
created as a programming object, and then the objects were displayed.

NN thus had great difficulty dealing with the increasing complexity of Web
pages, and specifically dynamic HTML and CSS. They attempted to plaster
'Layers' as an object orientated fix on top of their system, but it was
really just a hack. They finally realized that they would have to build NN
from the ground up. Unfortunately at this time they ran out of cash, so NN6
has been done on the cheap!

Frank Boumphrey
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Allred" <allred(at)allrednet.com>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: re Rant


> It's been an NN vs. IE thing for years. The crux of the problem for
> Netscape is that the W3C decided on a DOM (document object model) more
> in line with IE's DOM than Netscape's. This effectively killed any
> upgrade path for NS 4.x. As I'm sure you know, Netscape skipped ahead to
> NS 6, which incorporates the W3C-approved DOM, but hardly anyone I know
> of is thrilled with it. With Microsoft cramming IE upgrades down
> everyone's throat with each OS upgrade, IE definitely dominates the
> browser field, and its dominance will continue to grow.
>
> So that leaves developers, for the next couple of years anyway, to
> decide whether they go all the way supporting IE or continue to support
> other browsers, including NS 4.x.
>
> I would put it in perspective with this analogy. Both present-day
> English and German descended from Old German. Do we castigate the
> English for not adopting German, or do we make allowances for the split
> along two different paths and do what's necessary to translate between
> the two languages? If the issue is that the languages split, then
> there's no solution. They are simply not the same, despite their common
> heritage. But, if the issue is communication of information, then there
> are ways to deal with it.
>
> I can tell you, as a person who uses NS 4.78 almost exclusively for
> browsing, I rarely find a site that will not let me in or give me the
> information it presents. A notable exception is the Microsoft Gaming
> Zone. My conclusion is that there are an awful lot of developers and
> designers who accommodate the idiosyncrasies of Netscape, whether they
> prefer to or not.
>
> My advice is to make a conscious decision what you are going to do. If
> you feel you need to continue to support NS, then educate yourself on
> how to do it. If not, then forget it.
>
> If advanced features are really needed, but you can't afford to drop
> support for NS users, then consider the advice from the WAI (Web
> Accessibility Initiative). You don't have to dumb an application down to
> make it accessible to all. All you have to do, at a minimum, is provide
> a text alternative for those parts of a site that are inaccessible to
> some. That's just one approach--there are lots of others available as
> well. The W3C recommends the use of CSS for display attributes, leaving
> the underlying HTML as free as possible of markup. It's a relatively
> minor matter to create two different style sheets for the same HTML. One
> takes advantage of the newer features of IE. The other presents the site
> in a way that Netscape can handle.
>
> HTH,
> John Allred
>
> Lisa Howell wrote:
> >
> > It appears now it is a NN vs. IE thing. I give up!
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
> > [mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org]On Behalf Of
> > bryan.westbrook(at)amd.com
> > Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 4:57 PM
> > To: hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org
> > Subject: RE: re Rant
> >
> > HTML was not intended for browser publishers to have to make allowances.
> > HTML was made for compatibility.  Yes, Netscape has some proprietary
tags,
> > but there is no worse offender when it comes to abusing the standards
than
> > Microsoft.  The fault for those tags not working in Navigator lies with
> > Microsoft not Netscape and seem to be part of a larger strategy to
eliminate
> > the competition by making it incompatible.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Lisa Howell [mailto:nstar92(at)bellatlantic.net]
> > Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 1:14 PM
> > To: Lois Wakeman; HWG techniques
> > Subject: RE: re Rant
> >
> > But my anger is at NN for not making allowances!

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