4 ms·
What a load of crap. Represented there are 3 render engines, across however many browsers. Libraries like jquery and compass are making cross browser developmen
by cheald 16y ago
What a load of crap. Represented there are 3 render engines, across however many browsers. Libraries like jquery and compass are making cross browser development easier by the day. Different screen resolutions don't matter - you consider only mobile and desktop, and target minimum resolutions per each. CSS3 is making it even easier to handle different screen sizes without much effort.
I can set my user agent to anything I want, but that doesn't increase fragmentation. As someone who has been developing web apps for over a decade, it's getting easier by the day. Browser features are converging. It's not the wild west where each browser is trying to starve out competitors with proprietary mutually exclusive features.
A large number of user agents does not mean growing fragmentation in browser targets.
- DavidAdams 16y agoI agree with cheald on this. Fragmentation is only a problem if it actually leads to additional difficulty of development for those platforms. And the irony of the current situation is that the "fragmentation" we're seeing now is likely responsible for the fact that web development is "easier by the day." The worst situation, which we had back in the late 90s, was increasing domination by one player intent on subverting standards to push its own platform. Then innovative platforms get pushed aside for expediency's sake. Wrenching the web back from Microsoft resulted in many years of difficulty, but now we're in a situation where everyone, even Microsoft, must adhere to standards or be left behind. The very best outcome for web users will be for the market to stay as "fragmented" as possible, so everyone will be forced to stick with standards, and nobody ever gains a large share that can be used as a lever to distort the market.