Aall those hacks you need to make IE respect the box model...

...how far back do you go?

Are there still some who use IE5?

And which other browsers do you need hacks for so your design doesn't blow up?

So far I only heard about IE to need hacks.

Aall those hacks you need to make IE respect the box model...

If you have a fully patched version of IE6, the box model is no longer a problem, they finally fixed it with an update about 2 years ago.

I personally don't bother supporting anything older than IE6. There are a few vagaries in Safari, but, in general, if you write clean code, stay away from 'bleeding edge' stuff, you don't have to worry too much about other standards-compliant browsers.

Thanks, LadynRed.

Regarding Safari, Safari 2 doesn't recognize the background color of an iFrame.

I was shocked to see my site, which still uses iFrame (until I am done with Javascript to do my image gallery properly) lose the dark background.

The design was to use the iframe for images with a slightly different size. In order not to have any empty space, I made the iFrame background the same color as the rest of the page, and no borders. So you wouldn't see the where the iFrame was, just the projected image on a dark surface like a real slide show.

Safari 2 rendered the background blinding white and destroys the layout completely for any Safari 2 users (there is a good chance that there was a patch for this problem, and the lab didn't install it. Their computers were even running 10.4.7, missing four upgrades).

BOTTOM LINE: there will always be people who don't upgrade their software. Those are probably a minority and you can't worry about everyone.

I use this site when testing my designs: http://browsershots.org/
The only browsers that I have issues with is IE, which is to be expected. I only test IE7 and IE8. Most people use windows update so they will have either IE7 or 8 depending on if they have XP SP3 or not, or later.

I'd day much, depends upon your most likely users.

For a technology site, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and recent versions of IE are important (in that order).
For a non-technology site target a broad range of IE versions and recent Firefox and Safari.

Opera, Firefox, and Safari users tend to keep their browsers up to date. So supporting older versions aren't as important.

Few, IE users keep up to date. So, you might want to test with old versions.

OTOH, every site is unique. Watch your logs to see what your visitors use. Those are the people you want to take care of.
My site gets twice as many Linux users as Mac users. I doubt others see my traffic patterns.

I have recently begun using prototype for my scripting, it leaves few instances where you still need to make allowances for browser differences.

Originally Posted by Sleeping Troll

I have recently begun using prototype for my scripting, it leaves few instances where you still need to make allowances for browser differences.

That's interesting!

So, using Javascript makes your site more compatible?

Starting Javascript as soon as I get it. The JQery flavor.

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

I'd day much, depends upon your most likely users.

For a technology site, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and recent versions of IE are important (in that order).
For a non-technology site target a broad range of IE versions and recent Firefox and Safari.

Opera, Firefox, and Safari users tend to keep their browsers up to date. So supporting older versions aren't as important.

Few, IE users keep up to date. So, you might want to test with old versions.

OTOH, every site is unique. Watch your logs to see what your visitors use. Those are the people you want to take care of.
My site gets twice as many Linux users as Mac users. I doubt others see my traffic patterns.

So you'd go back as far as IE 6?

Then I found this thread.

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/html-f...about-ie8.html

I have no idea what this is about. I can only guess that you have to do something so IE8 goes into standards mode, or it will work like IE7. Big puzzlement...

I test for IE6, 7, 8, firefox and chrome. You can find the statistics here:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

15% of users still use IE6. Got to test for that one.

IE5 is completely off the chart, as LadynRed said.