Lee Munroe has written a good post on the problems and approaches to dealing with Internet Explorer 6 when working on web applications.
Internet Explorer 6 has been around a long time, and for a number of reasons will continue to “be around” for some time to come. My own analytics show approximately 20% of visitors across my sites are (still) using IE6.
Much as it might make crafting web layouts easier, it would seem unwise to throw a tantrum and drop support for this browser altogether just because it’s a little difficult to work with. Similarly, efforts to block IE6 users from your site or display misleading messages to your users about having to upgrade their browser, while they may raise a wry smile, are lazy and misguided.
Instead, I believe the pragmatic approach is a graduated reduction of IE6 specific development effort. I call this approach “so long as it works”.
Lee says much the same about his own work:
“What I’ll usually do before launching a site is check to make sure all the links are visible and clickable and all the content is accessible in IE6. I’ll even spend 30 minutes to make sure it looks ‘half decent’ with regards to IE6 not supporting PNG transparency.”
So long as it works would seem to be a sensible level of effort to put in to supporting what is fast becoming a minority browser and I think most web developers you ask today will take a similar view. Projects such as the Universal IE6 CSS can help reduce the effort required still further. Striving for pixel perfection in IE6 is a thankless struggle that usually involves a lot of rewritten CSS, ugly hacks and time. I’m of the opinion that it’s a struggle that should be avoided from here on in, unless specifically called for in the contract and therefore planned for in your estimates.
Wouldn’t you agree?
John Girvin is an experienced a software engineer and web developer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He draws on over 14 years of hard won, real world experience of different projects, clients and working environments.
John is currently working with the Art Technology Group (ATG), developing J2EE based, market leading e-commerce technology.
If you liked this article, why not subscribe to the RSS feed for more?
Looks good John – I remember reading this before but never left a comment. Thanks for the mention. So long as it works is the important bit. Graphical ‘flare’ is less important.