For years web developers have been forced to cater to the lowest denominator, this usually being the most featureless non-compliant browser available. With web compliant standards available to the public and a consortium of propeller heads to keep these standards in check, I believe it’s time for a change. As web developers I think it’s time that we no longer develop for the weakest, I think it’s time we develop for the strongest most feature rich browser(s) out there and don’t look back at browsers that take it upon themselves to go off on their own direction or that don’t want to evolve with the times. For too long developers have been forced to implement terrible code just to make the site somewhat presentable on horrific browsers. I say from this point forward we develop for the the strongest browser and force non-compliant browsers to either catch up or get out of the game, enough is enough (yeah…I’m looking at you Microsoft).
I know in hearing this there are some that will say the same ‘ol same “Well, our company is standardized on browser (x) and we can’t change…blah blah blah”. In this case, the problem isn’t the browser, it’s your director or CTO that needs to be changed. Changed with a person who has windows in his/her office and can look outside and realize “Oh hey, it’s not the 90’s anymore”. People, do not standardize on old browsers, it is the most ridiculous thing you can do. I’ve also heard the argument of “Well…we are standardized on this browser because it’s secure and…blah blah blah”. No! It isn’t, updates to browsers exist for a reason, because security flaws get found and fixed. Update all of your browsers to the latest version or close to it, do the research, do your job.
If we all only developed for what we believed the strongest browser to be (In my case it’s Google Chrome, for more reasons than I can count) the other browsers would be forced to catch up and be compliant, otherwise people wouldn’t use them…unless for some reason they are mentally deficient. But that is beside the point, build for the future, not the past. It’s time to start forcing the hand of these companies, we are web developers, we are innovators, we are the future of connectedness and it’s time to start moving forward.
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