Bridging the Browser Divide
Eric A. Meyer
Complex Spiral Consulting
- Seybold/WOW
- San Francisco, CA
- 8 September 2003
- 2:15pm - 3:15pm
- Bridging the Browser Divide
- www.Seybold365.com/sf2003
The Standards Landscape
- Things are really looking good!
- CSS support is better than ever before and allows for a great deal of creativity
- DOM scripting is pretty solid if you stick to W3C methods
- XML continues apace, including the in-progress XHTML2
- SVG: it's a lot more widespread than you think
XHTML 2
- The next chapter in the XHTML saga is still being written
- No more
h1—now we have a heading element and nesting sections
- You can define a set of links using a navigation list
- Anything can be a link
CSS
- CSS2.1 is finished! Hallelujah!
- Support has stabilized for the moment, and it's pretty good
- There's a lot of design experimentation and cutting-edge demo sites
- CSS has become a key part of the Web and Web-based applications
Standards-Oriented Design
- The big story is the move toward standards-oriented sites
- Accessibility and palm device support comes along for the ride
- Web design is maturing, and a new level of practice is emerging
- Example: using lists for navigation links and other layout components
- Wired, AMD, Fast Company, Adobe—these are just the beginning
Whither Microsoft?
- The Internet Explorer line is dead...
- ...long live Internet Explorer (whether we like it or not)
- There is a certain amount of stability brought about by this course
- Coming in 2005 or 2006: the Longhorn Corral
Browser-Specific Toys
- You can have opacity, but it has to be done two ways
- XBL is an interesting document-manipulation tool
- Bookmarklets can be a great tool for developers
- DOM and JavaScript inspectors built into Mozilla
- OperaShow allows HTML-based presentations
Looking Forward
- There's a brewing revolution in standards-oriented design
- Web browsers are now mostly consistent and interoperable
- The browser space is actually thriving, not dying
- We're seeing some interesting new directions and technologies
In Closing
- Please give us feedback on this session and the event as a whole
- Contact paths:
- Many thanks for your time and attention!