Ernies Tech Thoughts

I am a better back end programmer (php, mysql etc.), but I like to play around with CSS and XHTML. So I decided to put together my own WordPress theme for this blog. It is not going to win any design awards, but I am happy with what I quickly put together. The theme is very lightweight with only 1 graphic currently being used. The colour choice comes from the m o d e r n . a r t palette.

This is just a first draft, and it will be refined over time. My old buddy IE6 shows a few differences, and only Firefox and Safari get the rounded corners from their versions of the CSS3 border-radius property.

But hey I like it.

A major challenge of web development is that a particular OS and browser of the end user is not guaranteed, and so many must be catered for. This is not as bad as it used to be, now that Netscape 4, and Internet Explorer 5 and earlier have been consigned to history. This leave IE6, 7 and soon 8, Firefox, Safari and Opera. That is still plenty of scope for variation, and the general problem is IE6. So the decision by 37Signals to discontinue support for IE6 in mid August is an interesting development. It is also a bold move, but that is the way 37 Signals so things, by not catering to the entire world.
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Thought I would give a quick screenshot. Safari and IE6 browsers on Windows XP. All running with QEMU on Kubuntu Linux.

I should have shown Konqueror as well.