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Cross Browser Compatibility There are literally hundreds of web browsers in use around the
world. All of them implement the W3C document standards a little
differently. Web designers must wrestle with these differences
to make a web site work. This article discusses the effect those
different implementations has on design.
What is Cross Browser Compatibility?
If a web page is completely cross-browser compatible, it will
look more or less the same in all of the existing web browsers.
The most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Netscape
Navigator, Firefox and Opera.
Each one of these browser implements HTML, JavaScript and
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) a little differently. Some
difference only create cosmetic difference others can break the
webpage. The situation gets worse because each browser is free
to implement "enhancements" to the W3C standard version of each
of these formats.
Then to compound matters even more the underlying operating
systems also creates difference in how the computer displays
graphical elements and text differently. When you add the fact
that people are also using multiple versions of each of the
browsers, no wonder web designers get headaches.
So what is a web designer to do?
Obviously, 100% compatibility with all potential browsers is
impossible. But it is possible to design your web page so it
will work in the most popularly used browsers.
To accomplish that, a web designer must write squeaky-clean code
that conforms to the W3C standards to get consistent results
across all browser platforms. The whole idea behind the
standards is that if each browser adheres to the same set of
rules, you will get more or less consistent results in all of
the existing browsers.
Conforming can be a real challenge. It will limit some of the
neater effects available in specific browsers. There are online
code validators available. You can validate HTML code at
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