Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

blog.reybango.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 217 posts

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#51

Post by Zirro »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #36
tnorthcutt wrote: post #25

They were using many CSS3 features supported since IE9, like transforms & border-radius, but just not adding the –ms vendor prefix entry They had the “-ms” prefix for CSS3 gradients which was added in IE10 They added support for -khtml-box-shadow but not -ms-box-shadow??? They didn’t support Opera either unfortunately All this crap recently about web standards and Opera adopting the webkit prefix and how bad some peo…

I use Opera as my main browser and I cringe when clicking on a link in HN which supposedly shows off usage of cool new features in HTML/CSS/JS/WebGL whatever. Then I hunt around the site which breaks on me with no message. Then have to trawl through the HN comments to realize that it only works in Chrome and no one bothers to put that in the headline or on the site. Note that this happens to lots of Google cool featu…

"And now Opera is pissed at the usage of browser specific extensions and is adding support for -moz and -webkit which is sure to further mess up things."

I know Mozilla has been discussing this as well, to have a chance to compete in mobile. Do you have a link to Opera's statement about it?

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#53

Post by toast76 »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #25

They were using many CSS3 features supported since IE9, like transforms & border-radius, but just not adding the –ms vendor prefix entry They had the “-ms” prefix for CSS3 gradients which was added in IE10 They added support for -khtml-box-shadow but not -ms-box-shadow??? They didn’t support Opera either unfortunately All this crap recently about web standards and Opera adopting the webkit prefix and how bad some peo…

I think you'll find that they're using LESS or SASS or something. Such that when you define a box shadow that it produces the appropriate CSS for each respective browser.

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#54

Post by awj »

jpadvo wrote: post #21
brlewis wrote: post #2

This may be schadenfreude, but as someone who's been around the web a long time, it really tickles me to see Microsoft have to fake their user agent string to get around an arbitrary browser restriction. Other browsers used to fake the IE user agent string. I suppose it's full circle since IE originally had to pose as Netscape's browser (Mozilla compatible).

Same circumstance in both cases, though: _developers_, not browser vendors, unnecessarily restricting functionality based on browser sniffing.

Oh, it gets weirder than that. Much[1], much weirder.

[1] http://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#55

Post by rbanffy »

I can see why someone would do it. If you are on Windows, you _can_ use other browsers - every browser is available on Windows.

When I allow an IE user to use an application, I have to start testing on IE. In order to do that I'll have to make Selenium do some extra runs (IE 7, 8, 9, 10, Metro mode) under a Windows VM. I also need at least one (Win 7) Windows licenses (probably more, but I may be able to get away with permanently using it in preview) and, worst of all, when it breaks, I'll have to get the application fixed for, at least a couple versions of Firefox, Chrome and IE. And that if it breaks during testing - if it breaks with a user I'll have to start guessing what went wrong (if something did).

Nah... Windows users can use Safari, Chrome or Firefox.

edit: as pointed out by recoiledsnake, aaronbrethorst and Impossible Safari is available for Windows.

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#56

Post by mistercow »

jpadvo wrote: post #21
brlewis wrote: post #2

This may be schadenfreude, but as someone who's been around the web a long time, it really tickles me to see Microsoft have to fake their user agent string to get around an arbitrary browser restriction. Other browsers used to fake the IE user agent string. I suppose it's full circle since IE originally had to pose as Netscape's browser (Mozilla compatible).

Same circumstance in both cases, though: _developers_, not browser vendors, unnecessarily restricting functionality based on browser sniffing.

No, MS doesn't get to dodge blame that easily. They blatantly used non-standard features in their browser to stifle competition. Many developers were complicit in this but that was according to Microsoft's design.

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#57

Post by recoiledsnake »

Zirro wrote: post #51
recoiledsnake wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Opera as my main browser and I cringe when clicking on a link in HN which supposedly shows off usage of cool new features in HTML/CSS/JS/WebGL whatever. Then I hunt around the site which breaks on me with no message. Then have to trawl through the HN comments to realize that it only works in Chrome and no one bothers to put that in the headline or on the site. Note that this happens to lots of Google cool featu…

"And now Opera is pissed at the usage of browser specific extensions and is adding support for -moz and -webkit which is sure to further mess up things." I know Mozilla has been discussing this as well, to have a chance to compete in mobile. Do you have a link to Opera's statement about it?

Here:

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-mobile-emulator-exp...

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#58

Post by eagsalazar »

Doesn't anyone realize they just wrote that article and disabled ie9 to attract hipster freelance designers and developers? The whole thing is basically a PR stunt since they realized 99% of their hits were from Mac anyway. Especially having their article on Hacker News was just to get attention from the large freelancer following on HN.

I'm no fan of IE. However explicitly blocking IE9 is just idiotic for any other reason. They could, at worst, just have a subtle notice letting people know it is optimized for Chrome/FF and their mileage may otherwise vary.

However, for the reason of getting Mac using hipsters excited, it was pretty brilliant.

(btw, I'm not a Mac or Windows user)

Disclaimers: (1) This is just a theory. (2) I actually like hipsters. I just recognize they can sometimes be manipulated. Like everyone, they have their buttons.

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#59

Post by darklajid »

dpearson wrote: post #3

The problem is, IE 9 and 10 are not everywhere. I know for certain that my school (and, I'd be willing to wager, many businesses) only deploys IE 7 and 8. IE 6 still isn't dead, despite Microsoft publicly encouraging migration. Until Microsoft gets IE 9 and 10 adoption up, supporting Internet Explorer is tricky.

Cool. Interesting.

How does that relate to user agent sniffing vs. feature detection? Just asking, because I don't think your point and the 'Yeah, I get that guy's attitude' opinion are based on the same idea of what is necessary and what is bullshit/a marketing gag among geeks/a practice from the times when GeoCities was big.

Re: Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine In IE

#60

Post by Impossible »

rbanffy wrote: post #55

I can see why someone would do it. If you are on Windows, you _can_ use other browsers - every browser is available on Windows. When I allow an IE user to use an application, I have to start testing on IE. In order to do that I'll have to make Selenium do some extra runs (IE 7, 8, 9, 10, Metro mode) under a Windows VM. I also need at least one (Win 7) Windows licenses (probably more, but I may be able to get away wit…

Safari is available for Windows and has been for years.
Post reply on HN