Scripting for 5th Generation Browsers - Part 1
Written 07/14/2001 by Eddie Traversa. Last updated 07/14/2001.

Introduction

The release of NS6 has been a hotly debated topic on the net. At the center of this debate have been claims of lack of functionality and usability. To an extent these claims are accurate as the browser does have some usability issues, e.g. non-functional rollovers, as one example. However, approaching Netscape 6 from this negative perspective and focusing on the things that do not work is a limiting viewpoint. It is limiting because ‘we’ as web developers tend to loose sight of the bigger picture and consequently do not focus on what the browser can do in terms of coding practices. This bigger picture entails a web that allows developers to code by a singular standard. Herein lies the beauty of Netscape 6, a standards compliant browser, a factor that often seems to get lost in the usability debate. Consequently, for the first time on the WWW, developers can mostly focus on coding by a singular standard rather than having to work their way through a number of conditional JavaScript statements to cater to different browser requirements. I say mostly, because there are still some specific situations where DOM switches catering for Internet Explorer 5+ and Netscape 6 need to be provided, e.g., detecting a browsers height and width. In the main though a web developer’s focal point can be centered upon coding by a singular standard, which represents a considerable improvement in coding techniques.

While I understand that catering to Netscape 4 for commercial reasons is still essential for many web developers, I think it is equally important to understand that the future (emphasis on future) of the web does not lay in providing backward compatible solutions catering to proprietary technology. Rather the future of web development seems inherently tied to coding by a singular standard as evidenced by browsers beginning to adopt more W3C recommendations than at any other time in the history of the WWW. Consequently, it is imperative to begin to understand how to code for the leading browsers of today.

Which brings us to the purpose of this article. In this article I would like to expose the reader to some coding methods that cater for Internet Explorer 5+ and Netscape 6+. Hopefully, the coding examples provided here will serve the function of wetting the appetites of web developers and make them more eager to embrace the dawn of a new era.

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