NS4 or not?

[NeedScripts]

I was wondering if you guys would be able to help me out... should I make our site compatible with NS4 or not?

Doing so might mean about 2kb+ of html code more on every page.

Also, the main auidence of our website is normally webmaster, web developers, programmers.. etc and generally they are more aware of internet then others and so I belive they are more likely to have better browsers.

Can you guys comeup with any good reasons for making the site compatible with NS4?

NS

[bill]

With your audience I don't see any reason to make a NN4 site. Those people don't use that browser except maybe to check their code...

[txbakers]

No

[TheDoctor]

I'd go with bill on this one - but I'm curious as to why making the pages compatible would add 2kb+ of code. In my experience, splitting your CSS file into two and hiding the complex one from NS4 is sufficient.

[jo1ene]

I try to design my sites to look passable without my style sheet. My guess is that people who still use NS4 are used to things looking a little bit off. The worst thing that can happen is that some of the CSS you use would be ignored. I wouldn't worrry about it, considering your target audince.

[pleeker]

NS4 or not?

Not

[postmaster]

To be truly open you should author your sites to reach everyone. Do what YOU think is best.

[encyclo]

Is this an existing site? If so, then the stats will tell you whether you need to keep it NS4-compatible.

If it's a new site, then all you need to do is make sure the site is useable in NS4, even if unstyled - that goes for all browsers, of course. The best way in that case is to build a CSS design and use the @import method to hide the stylesheet from older browsers.

[Jon_King]

postmaster has a good take with one caveat IMO, if it requires investing money and time to be NS4 compliant look at the return on your investment.

There are so few NS4 surfers it seems to me a waste of good effort. Heck I even know some people with older back up PC's running Windows 3.1... am I gonna try to be compliant with them?

How much backward compatibility for browsers makes sense? Not more than 2 or 3 years IMHO, and NS4 is past that.

[NeedScripts]

Our current site's layout is doing pretty good on all latest browsers, however if someone were to use NS4 it does look little horrible :(

I am working on a new layout and am thinking not to worry about NS4 too much, but still thought it might be good to ask experts over here.

[TheDoctor]

It probably looks horrible because you're trying to use the same layout in NS4 and later browsers. When I converted to give NS4 users a minimalist experience, by not presenting them with the more advanced styles, I think the look of the page improved for them. It also improved for everyone else, since I was able to use techniques that didn't work at all on NS4.

But I still don't understand your statement about 2kb+ more html per page. Dealing with NS4 takes a minor amendment to your link statements.

[mattglet]

Do you have any stats that show how many people are actually using NN4? Use your judgement based on that.

I personally think everyone needs to stop supporting it, that way it will die, but that dead horse has already been beaten enough times.

-Matt