The browser war plods on, with Netscape and Microsoft continuing to make
steady improvements. Explorer 5.0 and Communicator 4.5 offer no
revolutionary changes from their predecessors, but with a likely lizard
called Gecko coming up strong, big things are definitely to be expected
soon. Explorer and Communicator both now implement basic HTML and
Javascript with few problems, but when it comes to Cascading
Style Sheets,
dynamic HTML and other advanced features of HTML 4.0,
both browsers come up
wanting. We'll look at the newest features, drop some hints and air some
pet peeves concerning the major browsers, and have a
brief squint at the 3
major email clients, too.
Explorer 5.0 and Communicator 4.5 both now implement basic
HTML and
Javascript
with few problems, and both are capable of accepting
plug-ins that can handle a huge list of file types. When it comes to
Cascading Style Sheets,
dynamic HTML
and other advanced features of
HTML 4.0,
however, both browsers come up wanting. Little, if any,
progress has been made on the standards compliance front, and the
two browsers continue to display Web pages quite differently,
especially when Style Sheets are involved.
Other browser options?
Opera
is well worth a look. This Norwegian development company
subscribes to the small-is-beautiful school of software design.
Opera fits on a floppy, and installs in seconds. The designers'
goal is a package for the experienced Web user that features broad
compatibility without a lot of frills. When I last
reviewed Opera I found it
impressive, but weak in the implementation department, especially
for
Java and
Javascript.
However, there's a new version out now (3.51),
so I'll be taking a second look soon. By the way, Opera isn't free -
it costs $35.00.
