> I restrict access to IE5.x users because I built this application using
> Visual Basic script and XML/XSL (an acronym for Extensible Markup
> Language/Extensible Stylesheet Language), both technologies in my opinion
> enabled a fast turn-around and an efficient application display without
> having you downloading executable files to your PC.
So would PERL and Python and C (server-side) and any number of
server-side protocols that do not require the user to work within a
specific program, and especially microsloth exploder. Moreover, there is
a number of pre-written free database applications that would run on
virtually any server and would not require the user to work with any
microsloth product.
I really shouldn't care about your site, however you must realize that
internet visitors are harsh, and if they can't do something with your
site *right away* they will simply go somwhere else and you'd lose a
client. You can look up the stats for people who use exploder versus
netscape and figure out how much people you're losing. Also consider the
fact that microsloth products are inherently buggy - how many frustrated
customers would turn away from the site because of someone else's faulty
code ? At least if the application is server-side you can always chose
to serve pure, unadulterated HTML with no fancy stuff and then every
browser would at least be able to display what you're serving.
Moreover, people who surf using computers *other than PC* would not even
have an option for IE. Please remember that scientists use a wider
variety of computing systems than the general public. I do not have IE
on any of my computers, and I only use one non-linux PC as compared to
two linux boxes, two sgi's and an alpha. Linux and SGI (and most alpha
machines) cannot have MS-IE (unless SGI runs NT or its sucky windows
emulator).
Well there you go.
Best regards,
A.G.E.
--
|Dr. Artem Evdokimov Protein Engineering |
| NCI-Frederick Tel. (301)846-5401 |
| FAX (301)846-7148 |
|eudokima at mail.ncifcrf.gov |
|http://www.ncifcrf.gov/plague |
