[Gllug] Role of webmasters (was: Sainsbury's Bank with Linux: online banking followup)

[Ryan Cartwright]

Dan Kolb wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 05:22:45PM +0100, Ryan Cartwright wrote:
>> However, having been frustrated many times by IE CSS hacks, I must say I
>> have been sorely tempted to insert browser detection into some of my
>> sites and reject any browser that doesn't properly adhere to W3C
>> standards. I've never succumbed of course (mostly because browser
>> detection is so hard to do properly and it's just a bad idea) but it was
>> very tempting to insist on one browser when trying to code a
>> multi-lingual site with nested rtl elements!
> 
> So, basically, you'd be rejecting all browsers, as pretty much none of them
> conform to *all* the W3C standards...
> (Take a look at the Acid3 test, f'rexample)

Hence why I think it's a bad idea and don't do it. I just said I was
sorely tempted. I don't kick my cat when she's fussing around me first
thing in the morning but sometimes I have been sorely tempted to. :o)

> Sticking a text enlarge/reduce option should merely be playing with the CSS
> properties.

Agreed and that is what I do. Applying a different CSS without reloading
the page usually involves some kind of JS which is what the text resize
buttons within a webpage generally use. As said I'd rather educate users
in changing their browser settings to how they want it. We're a
disability charity and so it's important to us that the people we serve
learn how to use the web for their advantage.

> One should never use absolute sizes when specifying fonts, anyway -

Absolutely and I never do. All my fonts are relative (usually specified
in ems). Educating users to set their basic fonts sizes etc. is a much
better plan in my book. What I was complaining against is

> those with worse eyesight will tend to use a larger browser font; if your site
> thinks it knows better, and rescales their text to something they can't read
> any more, they will be a tad pissed off.

And you could be falling foul of the Disability Discrimination Act if
you insist on sizes which visually impaired users cannot read and you do
not provide an alternative. All of our sites provide some kind of
alternate CSS. Some actually do provide a way for people to apply one of
those from within the site but that is always within a section that
explains how to change your browser settings if you'd rather.

-- 
Ryan Cartwright
http://www.cafamily.org.uk/oss
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/poster/8833
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