Cross-browser development

Question

I'm developing a web application for a new service, starting from Firefox 3.5.

The interface design is tableless, only using divs + CSS & performance-blessed practices.

Now, while being compatible with Safari has taken just a small amount of time, IE is a pain.

My question is: is there anything out there that could be used to speedup cross-browser checking? I already know many points of difference between FF and IE for instance, but a specific tool would maybe help some more.

Could you suggest one, if any?

Thanks,

Scarlet

Answer 1

Cross Browser Development

No tool can ever make up for bad behaviour, but they can sure make life easier on you.

That being said, you should really come up with a workflow that lets you optimize for cross-browser compatability in the least amount of work spent. If that means small iterative or large monolithical steps for you, well that is up to you to decide. But generally working against several browsers during development saves you if not time at least a major headache on d-day.

List of tools/resources I find useful

• Selenium is a tool for frontend testing
• IETester lets you view a page in different IE versions
• Browsershots lets you view the page on different platforms as well
• Google lets you search for known and obscure IE perversions
• IE 6 No More saves you a lot of headache not bothering about the preshistorical crap that goes by the name of IE 6
• YUI Graded Browser Support - make sure you know which browsers to focus on
• jQuery - cross browser javascript library
• YUI 3: Reset CSS - reset your CSS (link contains useful information as well as the CSS)
• 9 Most Common IE Bugs and How to Fix Them - very useful tips on how to get the most bang for the buck by fixing the common problems first.
• Cross browser development contains lots of useful tutorials regarding cross browser development.

References

Selenium alternatives / Cross Browser Testing / Litmus