disappointed in browsers

as power tools.

I am pretty sure most ordinary end-users are fairly happy with whatever browser they favor. As what may best be characterized as a power-user, I am moderately happy with standards-support, and quite disappointed with their overall performance as test-tools on a busy schedule.

I have tested out most browsers available to me, and the “big five” are all seriously under-performing on one major point: multi-tab switching. Same goes for the multitude of derivatives – some are slightly better and some are a lot worse.

slows down work-flow

For one who over the years has gotten used to Opera on the now discontinued Presto engine – that handled two dozen tabs about as quickly as it handled two, all major browsers out there today appear sluggish when working with more than a few tabs. Since there are only a few rendering engines left in development for browsers to be built on, things are unlikely to improve.

Calculate in that serious web designers / developers have to test their work across a number of browsers on various platforms to make sure every­thing works more or less as intended, and the entire development process starts to feel as unproductive as being stuck in a ten mile queue at rush-hour on the way in or out of major cities.

It makes no sense that software we have to use in our work gets stuffed so full of features that it becomes too slow and unresponsive to be of much use. Someone in those development circles should get their priorities straightened.

dealing with lack of standards-support

Nothing new that browsers vary in standards-support – some come early and some come very late, and that's the problem. As we write the year 2015, we should no longer have to wait so long to see support for useful design-features evenly spread across browser-land.

Unless we play it safe and stick to what worked well across browser-land five or more years ago, we either have to patch up a number of browsers, or ignore their weaknesses. Patches, and hacks, tend to create problems down the line, and are therefore not ideal solutions to lack of standards-support.

Unless a reasonable new version of a major browser really wreaks havoc on the design itself or makes content illegible and/or inaccessible – not likely to happen, I most often choose to ignore what it cannot do. The alternative: having to wait several versions and years for perfect support across browser-land, isn't an option in my book.

minimal testing

I have grown impatient over the years, and do not want to waste time on inefficient and slow-reacting software. So, I limit testing as much as I dare at each design-stage. If some­thing fails I can just hope I'll catch it before it's too late.

I know how this and that is supposed to work, or not work, in various browsers on a number of devices, so testing designs in latest version of one browser on each of the three major engines – Blink, Gecko and (maybe) Trident, will have to do in most cases.

I like what I do on the web, but this is beginning to look ridiculous.

sincerely  georg; sign

Hageland 21.jul.2015
last rev: 24.jul.2015



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