HICKSON Genealogy

Browser Implementation

It is my aim that these web pages should be easily readable and that they should load quickly. Basic HTML markup has been used together with Style Sheets (CSS) which enable the text to be read whichever browser is being used. Unfortunately the first browsers to attempt support of CSS did a rather poor job. The worst offenders are Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x and Netscape Navigator 4.x. The first in their respective lines to attempt CSS support, these browsers have incomplete, bug-ridden implementations of CSS. Some of their flaws are bad enough to cause the browser to crash when trying to handle some styles. Things improved with Internet Explorer 4.x and 5.x. Opera 3.5 started with impressive CSS support which was restricted to version 1 of CSS (CSS1). Netscape v.6 and Internet Explorer v.6 both handle CSS1 very well, although not identically (they don't follow the rules exactly), and have started to implement part of CSS2. Printing is still badly supported by these browsers, particularly as concerns colour. You do not get the same result on paper as you see on screen.

One of the main differences seen in these web pages is that the Navigation menu (the left hand panel in later browsers) appears at the bottom of each page in the earlier browsers as a list of links.

For those using Mozilla Firefox or Netscape V.6.2 (and maybe some earlier versions), you can sometimes change the Style Sheet by going to "View", then selecting "Use Stylesheet", where you choose between "None", "Ian's Styles" and "Anthony's Styles" or possibly others. The default Style is "Ian's Styles". "Anthony's Styles" was an experiment. "None" will put the Navigation menu at the bottom of the page, but use the full page for the text.

In order to enable me to improve the presentation of these pages I would appreciate your comments. Please state which browser and the version number that you are using and the make of computer on which it is implemented. Please also state exactly what you see and what you think you should be "seeing". (By seeing I am including all types of media: screen, printer, projection, braille and aural)

I support the Best Viewed With Any Browser campaign for non-browser-specific pages although my interpretation of that is that I should code to the standards, not the lowest common denominator.