Delphinidin

Unlike with many traditional programming languages on the Web, we don’t get to choose the environment in which CSS and HTML is run; your end users make this decision by selecting which web browser they use. Although CSS is a standard supported by all major browsers, there are often differences between them, so it is important to be aware of the top players and to be able to test in each of them before releasing professional code. It is worth taking a look at Yahoo!’s Graded Browser Support page at http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/articles/gbs/, which is regularly updated to show the current range of browsers that Yahoo! recommends that developers test in. It is based on traffi c analysis to the Yahoo! network and is quite representative of the Internet as a whole.

You can break down browsers into groups based on the engine that they use for rendering pages; this means browsers that share the same rendering engine are more likely to display things in the same way, which can cut down on testing.

WEBKIT
Webkit is the rendering engine used by the Apple Safari and Google Chrome browsers. It has good support for CSS 2.1 and supports many features of CSS3.

- Safari
Safari is a browser based on the Webkit rendering engine from Apple. It is available for Windows and Mac OS X from www.apple.com/safari. The current version of Safari is version 5 and has just under six percent market share.

- Google Chrome
Google’s Chrome is also based on the Webkit rendering engine. It is available for Windows and Mac OS X from www.google.com/chrome. Chrome has just over fourteen percent market share. While Chrome is the newcomer to the browser market it is showing rapid rates of adoption and is under heavily active development from Google with new versions released regularly.

TRIDENT
Trident is the engine used by Internet Explorer from Microsoft and comes with the Windows operating system. After many years of market dominance, there are four versions of Internet Explorer in wide use today. Overall, Internet Explorer has more than 46 percent market share. You can download all versions from windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie.

- Internet Explorer 10
Internet Explorer 10 is the latest version of Microsoft’s browser. Internet Explorer 10 will have good support for both CSS 2.1 and CSS3.

- Internet Explorer 9

- Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8 is currently the most widely used version with around a 27 percent market share. Internet Explorer has decent support for CSS 2.1 but is lagging behind other major browsers in support for CSS 3.

- Internet Explorer 7
While Internet Explorer 7 never built the market share of version 8 or that of its predecessor, version 6, it still has over 10 percent market share. While Internet Explorer has decent support for CSS 2.1, it is lacking in support for CSS 3.

- Internet Explorer 6
Even though it was released back in 2001, Internet Explorer 6 still has over 16 percent market share. This is thankfully dropping, but this browser will be around for a while and still needs to be tested in for good coverage of the market. Internet Explorer 6 has support for much of CSS 2.1 but is missing parts that would otherwise make development much easier. It lacks support for CSS 3.

GECKO
While there are many uncommon browsers that use the Gecko rendering engine for practical purposes, you only need to consider one: Mozilla Firefox.

- Firefox
You can download Firefox for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at www.firefox.com. At the time of writing, the current version of Firefox is 8 and has just over 30 percent market share, making it the second most popular browser. By the time this book is published, Firefox 9 will have been released, which will have similar support for the CSS I cover. Firefox has good support for CSS 2.1 and supports many features of CSS3.

PRESTO
The Presto rendering engine is developed by Opera Software for their own range of browsers.

- Opera
Opera is a web browser from Opera Software, which has a small marker share of just over 2 percent. While commanding a small market share for desktop browsers, it is a major player in the rapidly expanding mobile market. Opera has good support for CSS 2.1 and supports many features of CSS3. You can download this browser for Windows, OS X, and Linux from www.opera.com.