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It sends the User-Agent, which can be used to determine whether it's the desktop or not. It doesn't solve the portrait and landscape changing problem. So some c
by benatkin 13y ago
It sends the User-Agent, which can be used to determine whether it's the desktop or not. It doesn't solve the portrait and landscape changing problem. So some client-side responsive design would still need to be used.
I think a hybrid approach would be too tedious for someone developing a website to do, in order to get the payoff of sending less to mobile browsers, but it may be worth implementing in a framework.
- cheald 13y ago1) User agents lie. Frequently. 2) A user agent doesn't encode any information about the actual metrics of the device. Doing layout by user agent is basically a worst-case hellhole of browser-specific codebase fragmentation. There's a very good reason why best practices have been trending away from "test for vendor class" and towards "test for agent capabilities".
- benatkin 13y agoWell a sufficiently complex framework could deal with it, by making another trip to the server if it discovers the code being sent down the first time isn't good enough.
- martin-adams 13y agoThe fact that I'm on a desktop does not take into account that my browser window may be smaller than my 'desktop screen'. Responsive is the way to go because it works.
- untog 13y agoIt sends the User-Agent, which can be used to determine whether it's the desktop or not. What is "desktop"? An MS Surface Pro would report as a desktop browser, but it's a touch interface. You can also resize the browser window- what then? So some client-side responsive design would still need to be used. Which is the point. The server can't know conclusively so why make it try?
- nostrademons 13y agoCSS3 media queries can often fulfill the missing link for screen sizes, aspect ratios, etc. http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/ http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/