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August 21, 2003
Quirky
Hyatt's latest Safari blog entry about quirks and browser sniffing is something we discussed at Netscape a lot, especially in the evangelism group.
Quirks are annoying, but the web is not a very nice place. And if you think only one website has a certain quirk, you are usually wrong - code copy is rampant on the web. One example was China - I fixed a floating advertisement script for one of the major websites, and within a week, one other site had copied the fixed code. While this might justify evangelising websites to fix themselves, doing 1-1 evangelism is cumbersome. Adding a quirk usually is much simpler in terms of man hours.
Hyatt also notes that many sites do now (in part to Netscape/Mozilla) support DHTML for standards compliant websites, but usually they check IE/NS4 first, and then only DOM (usually because its less changaes to the code to add an additional else if(){}), and only Gecko and now Safri ever hit the DOM path, even though IE could easily handle it.
This is also one of the reasons (the main in fact) for my being against adding document.all support - if we don't fully support all of IE DOM, we would screw up sites that currently work with us! And if we didn't, then sites would still break, even with document.all.
So if you are a web developer, please check DOM complaince first! It will help you once day to only need one codepath for everything!
No wonder so many browser devs are moving away from the industry :)
Posted by doron at August 21, 2003 7:22 PM
Comments
By building an application that takes advantage of Aqua's many facets, you help ensure that your application will not only look good, but have a chance of becoming a raging success. After a new user clicks on the icon of your program, the first thing he or she sees is the application interface. I know that when I review a product, I am very critical of its visual design. I usually have a short time to learn the new software, so design and ease of use are very important. Aside from those who marvel at the beauty of the command line, most users tend to react the same way.
Posted by: Roland at January 24, 2004 9:23 AM
This is the first thing your users see, and probably the single most important visible part of your application. It is the first chance you have at making an impression and the best chance to help establish your brand.
Posted by: Wombell at January 24, 2004 9:23 AM
Adhere to File Locations. Make sure that when your users save documents, your application knows where to put them and also gives users flexibility.
Posted by: Ambrose at January 24, 2004 9:23 AM
Okay, I just told you what Apple wants you to look out for with window positions, but in the real world, not everyone uses the hiding feature of the Dock, and it is unrealistic to be able to predict where each user will place their Dock at any given day or how large they will have it. However, you can build a feature into your application that allows spacing for the Finder. You can give users the option of where to position their windows and what area of the screen not to cross. I know that BBEdit provides me with this feature, and I wish more developers gave me more control over my windows.
Posted by: Miles at January 24, 2004 9:23 AM
User Assistance. This is helping the user with the proper "next step" when performing a task. Less guesswork for the user on what to do next makes for a better experience.
Posted by: Thomas at January 24, 2004 9:23 AM
Whether native or not, this is obviously one of the first steps on your way to OS X. Keep in mind that often, the functionality of your code has a lot to do with how your interface is designed. How many developers have come up with great functional ideas from working with their interface or looking at their competitors'? Start working on your Aqua compliance from day one. Don't wait until the last minute.
Posted by: Watkin at January 24, 2004 9:23 AM
Whether native or not, this is obviously one of the first steps on your way to OS X. Keep in mind that often, the functionality of your code has a lot to do with how your interface is designed. How many developers have come up with great functional ideas from working with their interface or looking at their competitors'? Start working on your Aqua compliance from day one. Don't wait until the last minute.
Posted by: Georgette at January 24, 2004 9:24 AM
For my Paint application, I created a series of icons to simulate a rendering algorithm. While the application is performing this CPU-intensive task, you can always see the status of the document by the icon changing in the Dock.
Posted by: Mable at January 24, 2004 9:24 AM
You Must Promise. To call your mother, to help old ladies cross the road, and to turn your cell phone off at the movies.
Posted by: Zachary at January 24, 2004 9:24 AM