

Why Browser Sniffing Stinks - ajbatac
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/31/why-browser-sniffing-stinks/#

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SamAtt
I found a lot wrong with this article. But the two that bothered me the most
were these.

"Reduced scalability and increased maintenance"

The author claims code "can never be future proofed" because of different
browsers. I don't see why that's so. I personally use a renderhtmlforbrowser()
function that uses a switch statement. So all I have to do when a new browser
comes out is add another string to the switch statement and another function
for the renderhtmlforbrowser function to call.

"It's Rarely Required"

The author says "Web standards have made browser sniffing far less necessary
on the server" but I disagree with that. Standards have made things easier in
that you can create HTML that won't be completely mangled by one browser while
working fine in the other. But anyone whose tried knows that a site's
appearance can be completely different in two separate browsers even though
they are both standards compliant (even with CSS). So anyone who cares how
their site looks still needs to pay attention to all browsers

~~~
riffic
<http://dowebsitesneedtolookexactlythesameineverybrowser.com/>

~~~
CUViper
Agreed. If you really need pixel-perfect layout of your content, then use
images like Wolfram Alpha does. Your time is probably better spent on content
and usability though.

Or for another aspect -- all displays will render colors differently, but it
would be nonsense to try to compensate with different color schemes in your
website.

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rythie
Most the non-IE browsers work pretty well and get updated quickly to fix
problems. IE needs the workarounds and for that you can use conditional
comments (<http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html>).

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jbm
x100.

Mixi, the Japanese social networking service, has a mobile site. I was trying
to surf to it via my DSi; but they refuse mobile connections from anything but
a mobile browser that is recognized in their DB. They might have complicated
that further by some awful IP address restrictions (thank you so much, jphone
ruby package /sarcasm).

Result? I need to load the full website on a game system that simply cannot
handle it. It cannot compare in the slightest to experience to the experience
loading mobile Facebook. (Although to be fair, Mixi cannot compare favorably
to anything done after Friendster anyway).

Please people, unless you really have to - don't browser-sniff.

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TweedHeads
IE is like an 800lbs weight belt locked around the waist of the web.

