Archive for the ‘Gripes’ Category

Browser Browser Browser

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Due to my recent experiences with Internet Explorer I have now switched to Firefox as my main browser. Even though Internet Explorer works great from a user’s standpoint I cannot continue to use it. I recently had some nightmares about browser compatibility issues which now makes Internet Explorer too painful to use.

Oh, for all of you viewing this website on Internet Explorer 6 or earlier I am sorry. If you want to see what it is supposed to look like look at it in IE7 or any other browser that is on the market today.

Ugh Internet Explorer. Good Morning from Taiwan and peace out.

RJ’s Dislike for IE Continues

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Well in my last entry I was having an extremely annoying problem with a site that I was working on in IE. When I used transparencies IE just turned off cleartype and gave me nasty and difficult to read text. Since I didn’t think that the organization would want crappy text I had to think of a workaround.

In the process of fumbling around the internets I discovered that all of the CSS Filters, that ONLY Internet Explorer supports, turn off cleartype when they are used. There is a workaround to enclose the internal text in a relatively positioned div tag but that does not work for the opacity filter. Since Internet Explorer does not support conventional methods of handling opacity the filter method was the only way available to me. I had thought of some one crazy workaround but I didn’t want to go that route because it was overly complicated. I scoured the internets and found nothing that would work. The only workaround that I found was the exact one that I thought of. Boy was I pissed.

What I had to do was use Internet Explorer only comments (can you believe it? they know that their browser has issues so they have this comment syntax that ONLY internet explorer will see) to comment out the text that worked fine in every other browser. Then I had to use an Internet Explorer only html if statement to load the text if the page was loaded in Internet Explorer. Here comes the stupid part. The internet explorer text had to be brought into the page after the translucent div tag. Then I had to absolutely position it directly on top of the translucent div. So now I have this stupid hack on this page that I made. God I am hating Internet Explorer right now.

Here is what the text looks like on Internet Explorer 8 after my “workaround.”

 

harambetextIEworkaround

Here it is before my overly complicated workaround.

harambetextIE

And here is the Firefox rendering with no workarounds needed.

 harambetextFF3

The difference is that the Internet Explorer 8 rendering with the workaround has a translucent background but not translucent text. I think I can change the coloring of the text to give it the right effect but I am too annoyed to deal with it right now. whatever, problem solved, in my case at least.

My final word on this is “get Firefox.” Then hopefully one day when people make web pages they won’t even take Internet Explorer’s idiosyncrasies into account when designing websites.

Long live Firefox! peace out!

RJ is pissed at Internet Explorer 6 7 and 8!

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Now as you can guess from the name of my site I am usually pissed off about something. But usually it is stupid stuff that really doesn’t have anything to do with anything really. But today is something different! This probably affects many many people.

I am currently working on a website for a non profit called the Harambe Endeavor. And as part of the temporary page there is a small text blurb on the lower portion of the website that is not fully opaque. This is an opacity setting of 80%. Here is the text as it shows up in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8.

harambetextIE

And here is the text as it appears in Firefox 3. notice anything?

harambetextFF3

The text as rendered by Firefox looks nice and smooth, very easy to read. But the text rendered by Internet explorer looks as though the computer was a 3 year old with a marker and is somewhat difficult to read.

I have scoured Google for quite some time looking for a solution to this issue but I can find none. The only option is to add this text into the site as a picture. Which I do not want to do, because a search engine can’t read a picture and also it is just tacky. I have seen multiple complaints about it on the internets but no solutions. And this problem dates back to IE 6 probably! what the hell Microsoft Internet Explorer Development Team?! You need to get your act together!

Just to let you know how much of an issue this is, I tested this website on 7 different browsers. here’s the list:

Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18783
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 6
Safari 4.0 (530.17)
Google Chrome 2.0.172.33
Opera 9.64
Firefox 3.0.11

And the only browsers that renders text so crappily are, you guessed it, the Internet Explorer browsers. I think people need to stop using Internet Explorer so that they will get their act together and start fixing these stupid issues. Once Microsoft sees these other browsers encroaching on their market share more and more they will have to do something.

I should mention that Cleartype works perfectly when the div is not opaque but I want a translucent effect. But it seems like that will be impossible.

I think that the United States should follow Europe’s lead. In Europe it seems Windows 7 will be shipping without a browser. This means that computer manufacturers such as Dell and HP will be choosing which browsers to install based on their customers desires. I think it is safe to say that their more tech savvy customers will want Firefox or some other browser installed on their System over Internet Explorer. This type loss in market share would really light the fire under the Internet Explorer Development teams ass and maybe get things going.

Oh and another stupid issue is the way that Internet Explorer put borders around objects such as divs or tables. The border runs along the INSIDE of the table instead of the outside so when you put a picture all the way to the right of the div or table it covers the border. How stupid is that? and once again IE is the only browser that renders that way. fark! what are they trying to do to me? sheezus! oh well whatever.

Jeez I am starting to dislike our friends over in Seattle (Microsoft). Haha as I sit here typing this blog entry on Windows Live writer, on Windows Vista SP2, with IE 8 open right behind this window. GAH! they have me in their grasp! nooooooo………

If anyone happens to know a workaround other than replacing the text with an image please post it in a comment I would be eternally grateful.

whatever ya’ll. As our friend Spock would say “live long an prosper”. Peace out.