In Revit we are continually exhorted to ‘flex’ our families. That is to say, when creating a parametric family component (like a piece of furniture or a fixture) I need to flex the model by inputting a variety of values for the different parameters, such as… length, width, and height for example. This ensures that all the constraints are satisfied and the model doesn’t break.
I’m supposed to apply the same principle to website design by ‘flexing’ sites within the different (major) browsers ( Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc…). I’m no hacker, but my simplified understanding is that there are 3 basic rendering platforms that browsers are built on. So when I type in a web address (URL), I will get slightly, to very different views of the web page that pops up on my screen, depending on which browser I’m using. This is because different browsers read and interpret (or render) the web page coding (or instructions). As a result, developers who code the web end up having to say the same thing 2-3 times in different ways. Sounds like a perfect job for parents of teens. Some browsers (like teens) are very lazy or don’t understand the code, and decide to ignore instructions altogether. This often results in a ‘broken’ page, or the browser’s own interpretation of what the page should look like.
I did this with my own site yesterday and was appalled at how Explorer behaved compared to the other browsers. Needless to say, I’m going to have to make some changes, especially when it comes to the use of flash. Yes, the human elements of choice, individuality, & diversity are alive and well within the computing world and evident in how computers communicate. Particularly on the web. Seems that we can’t agree on a universal computer language either.