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Safari is not as bad as IE was compared to other browsers. However, calling it the 'new IE' is accurate if the definition is 'the browser with the worst support

by korm 9y ago

Safari is not as bad as IE was compared to other browsers. However, calling it the 'new IE' is accurate if the definition is 'the browser with the worst support of new features and most bugs'. Here is a comparison http://html5test.com/compare/browser/safari-10.2/ios-10.3/edge-15/firefox-53/chrome-58.html http://html5test.com/compare/browser/safari-10.2/ios-10.3/ed... What is especially frustrating for web devs is that all browsers on iOS are Safari underneath. We have to deal with those weird bugs and missing features the same painful way we dealt with IE, hence the title of the article. Saying that it's not as bad is not the point, IE 11 was also not as bad as IE6, we still had to deal with its quirks.

pcurve 9y ago
I don't know if the feature support chart paints the full picture. I think web developer's problem with Safari is more nuanced. It's not so much about whether a feature is implemented or not, as is about 'how' it's implemented.
- mmastrac 9y ago
  As someone who did extensive browser dev from 2001 onward, that's exactly how it was with IE as well.
ddebernardy 9y ago
Safari doesn't compare with how IE was in its heydays. In IE times, it was the majority browser and web shops were complaining that they were developing on less popular platforms (typically Firefox, and Netscape before it) and then ranting about how IE did things differently. Had they developed for IE all along with an aim for compatibility with FF, they'd have done things differently and, in many cases, compatibility wasn't that hard if you targeted lower common denominator - that is, a few earlier versions of each browser. Sure, you'd miss out on the latest browser features, but that's not what web dev was about then. Rather, it was - depending on the shop - about making a site work on all platforms, or about making it work on IE and to hell with other platforms - with great despise from the rest of the community. For some reason, things changed in recent years. Chrome is now dominant, and for whatever reason developing against its latest version has become the new normal, with web shops complaining that other browsers aren't keeping up fast enough, and no echo chamber to counter that discourse by pointing out that "hey, why aren't you targeting older browsers to begin with?" In case it needs reminding, iOS 7 is from 2013 and iOS 5 is still running on 2010 devices. That's only a few years ago. For comparison, we coped with IE6 for well over a decade, and XP (from 2001) only recently got deprecated.
- Drdrdrq 9y ago
  True. But in some ways current situation with Safari is worse. With IE you could at least say "download a proper browser if you want proper experience" (if you had the luxury of not being in servitude to your visitors). With Safari it's more like "get a proper phone", which is far from costless. On the bright side, Apple is also hurting themselves with this approach. Missing a good browser will only speed up the decline of iOS.
  - AckSyn 9y ago
    In reality all it does is hurt your brand to treat iOS browsers like a second class citizen. Any dev shop worth its salt will develop for all four of the big browsers. IE, FF, Safari, and Chrome. I've personally never met a client in the webdev business (current position) that required anything but near identical looks between them all. It's not impossible, and to the contrary opinion of many it's not that difficult for people that know what they're doing. It's just a lot of work.

by korm 9y ago

pcurve 9y ago

I don't know if the feature support chart paints the full picture. I think web developer's problem with Safari is more nuanced. It's not so much about whether a feature is implemented or not, as is about 'how' it's implemented.

mmastrac 9y ago
As someone who did extensive browser dev from 2001 onward, that's exactly how it was with IE as well.

ddebernardy 9y ago

Safari doesn't compare with how IE was in its heydays. In IE times, it was the majority browser and web shops were complaining that they were developing on less popular platforms (typically Firefox, and Netscape before it) and then ranting about how IE did things differently. Had they developed for IE all along with an aim for compatibility with FF, they'd have done things differently and, in many cases, compatibility wasn't that hard if you targeted lower common denominator - that is, a few earlier versions of each browser. Sure, you'd miss out on the latest browser features, but that's not what web dev was about then. Rather, it was - depending on the shop - about making a site work on all platforms, or about making it work on IE and to hell with other platforms - with great despise from the rest of the community. For some reason, things changed in recent years. Chrome is now dominant, and for whatever reason developing against its latest version has become the new normal, with web shops complaining that other browsers aren't keeping up fast enough, and no echo chamber to counter that discourse by pointing out that "hey, why aren't you targeting older browsers to begin with?" In case it needs reminding, iOS 7 is from 2013 and iOS 5 is still running on 2010 devices. That's only a few years ago. For comparison, we coped with IE6 for well over a decade, and XP (from 2001) only recently got deprecated.

Drdrdrq 9y ago
True. But in some ways current situation with Safari is worse. With IE you could at least say "download a proper browser if you want proper experience" (if you had the luxury of not being in servitude to your visitors). With Safari it's more like "get a proper phone", which is far from costless. On the bright side, Apple is also hurting themselves with this approach. Missing a good browser will only speed up the decline of iOS.
- AckSyn 9y ago
  In reality all it does is hurt your brand to treat iOS browsers like a second class citizen. Any dev shop worth its salt will develop for all four of the big browsers. IE, FF, Safari, and Chrome. I've personally never met a client in the webdev business (current position) that required anything but near identical looks between them all. It's not impossible, and to the contrary opinion of many it's not that difficult for people that know what they're doing. It's just a lot of work.