It Looks Bad

Modified: $Date: 2003/02/05 16:21:05 $

It hurts to admit, because I've always tried make things look nice, but this site looks not-good in a number of web browsers on a number of platforms. *sigh*

Most of the problems cropped up after a redesign. I'm still not sure if the benefits outweigh said problems. I guess that's true of lots of things clumped under the category of "progress."

As far as I can tell, you're using CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html). With that in mind, here's a list of browsers and platforms and my lame comments (excuses) regarding them:

Mozilla

I'll be surprised if things look bad in a recent build of Mozilla, because that's my browser of choice and the one I use when doing things to this site. If you see a problem with Mozilla, it's my fault. Please let me know, and thanks for the fish.

Internet Explorer

I proof things in Internet Explorer 6, and fix anything that is truly horrid. Happily, Mozilla and IE agree for the most part these days. If only more web designers took advantage of that...

For earlier versions of IE, all bets are off. Of course, I think all bets are already off if you're using any version of IE, but hey.

Netscape 6+

I don't have any Netscape 6+ browsers installed, because I don't see why I'd want to run an older version of Mozilla with marketing junk injected throughout. Here, I just hope that Gecko makes things smooth. [fingers crossed]

Netscape 4

If you're using Netscape 4, this page looks really terrible. I recently made some changes, and I haven't gotten around to making a decent stylesheet for Netscape 4. This means there is very little styling, and it's pretty rough.

I'm sorry about this, and I plan to do something about it soon. In the meantime, there are lots of newer browsers for you to choose from which do a much better job at handling today's web sites. You might give them a look.

Opera

Opera 6.x has a couple of CSS quirks. They're mostly harmless. But I try to minimize the crud.

Lynx

Lynx rocks, and as far as is possible, this site rocks in Lynx. That's always been a matter of pride for me.

Macintosh

I am a big Macintosh fan, but I don't have one. (Well, I have a Power Mac 7100/80, and a PowerBook Duo 230. I think those don't really count anymore.)

There's one at work, but I'm usually pretty busy there, so I don't use it too often.

This means that I don't often proof changes on Macintosh browsers. It's nothing personal; I envy you, each and every one.

If you use a Mac, and you see something messy for which you know the answer, I'd love to hear from you.

I am hoping that my Mac-less-ness will end eventually.

Linux

Things look just fine in Mozilla and Konqueror, assuming you have a decent sans-serif font available.

Solaris

It has always looked bad on Netscape 4 on Solaris, but not too shabby in Mozilla. If I get a few hours for Mozilla to launch on the Ultra 5, I'll give it another look. I don't really get much Solaris traffic, but it would be nice to reward those hardy souls who give it a try.

Others

No idea. You tell me.