Netscape 4.x - the x is for "xtra crappy"
By Todd Stadler · Thursday, February 28, 2002 6:20pm
Normally, I'm not one to make fun of people's choice of web browser. Recently, though, I have come to loathe Netscape 4 and its friends.
That's because it's a browser that claims to support style sheets, but largely fails to do so. Clearly, this is wrong.
It would be one thing if it simply ignored the style sheets altogether. Then, as I noted, the XHTML would just be displayed without any fancy decoration, and things would be okay.
But Netscape 4-something goes the extra step and manages to completely bungle whatever the style sheet tells it to do, resulting in a big mess. Like trying to photocopy a bowl of vanilla pudding. Yes, using the automatic feeder tray. Don't question my metaphors.
Accordingly, I decided to serve up old-school, tables-based HTML to anyone browsing with a Netscape 4.x browser. It seemed like the nice thing to do, what with ten percent of Cock-a-hoop readers still using that browser.
However, doing this required that I code up a completely separate page just for that browser. That means that I had to do almost twice as much work as I would have had if I had ignored ten percent of the people.
As if it weren't enough having to develop completely different pages for this browser, it had to keep crashing on me every so often. Not just mangling the web page. I mean the stupid browser died. I am not alone in observing this.
Now you tell me - does a browser that crashes when it processes perfectly legitimate code sound like a good browser to you? It just says, "Whoa, I don't know about that, I think I'll die" and then lays down. Is that a feature you want?
I can only imagine not. Fortunately, the solution to the problem that is Netscape 4.x is relatively simple - upgrade to one of many current browsers that aren't so crappy.
On my machine right now, I have Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 6.2, and Opera 6, all of which are available for free (although I liked Opera so much I actually paid to register it).
My point is, if you are viewing this with Netscape 4.x and are able and allowed to download a new browser on your computer, I suggest you do so. Unless you just cherish obsolescence.
Because I don't feel it's worth my time to continue updating Cock-a-hoop for both Netscape 4.x and all more recent browsers. In fact, some changes I made in redesigning Cock-a-hoop didn't get included in the Netscape 4.x version of this page.
Maybe because I was tired, maybe because I was tired of that browser crashing.
Either way, you've been informed.