Firefox Formatting | The Coffeehouse

I know that Firefox is supposed to render a web page the same on every OS. My question is, does it succed in doing so (minus font differences)? I recently got in a discussion about this on IRC and am curious if one of the C9ers here had a definitive answer (w3bbo, I'm looking in your direction).

Rowan

As far as I know the rendering engine is exactly the same and all the same rules are still applied. The only differences are how the OS renders buttons, fonts and anything else firefox incorporates from the OS.

I have noticed very minute differences, but I'm pretty sure that's due to font differences.

W3bbo

steel300 wrote:

I know that Firefox is supposed to render a web page the same on every OS. My question is, does it succed in doing so (minus font differences)? I recently got in a discussion about this on IRC and am curious if one of the C9ers here had a definitive answer (w3bbo, I'm looking in your direction).

That's right, it renders almost everything exactly the same accross all platforms except for elements that are dependent on the native widget set (and of course, the user's own settings), for example the <input /> and <button> elements.

However, if you override all of the standard box properties on these elements then you can achieve consistent appearance at the expense of losing native widgets (but you can always use the CSS environment color values)

Cornelius Ellsonpeter

Did anybody ever come up with an all-Java based browser? What was "hot-Java"? Man, Java has some uGLy widgets. Hire a real graphic artist next time, and not some sheet-metal worker to do UI design (some of the widgets look like the metal they use to make running boards on vehicles).

CannotResolveSymbol

Java's better than it used to be... not that it's particularly beautiful or anything:

They're getting better at emulating the native windows Look and Feel, also. Glass is going to completely ruin their efforts, though.

Swing includes some basic HTML support, and there are full Java browsers out there. I couldn't tell you what they're called, though.

Mike Dimmick

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

They're getting better at emulating the native windows Look and Feel, also. Glass is going to completely ruin their efforts, though.

Sun need to stop using DirectDraw with a locked primary surface to do their rendering, because right now any use of a Java application/applet causes the Desktop Window Manager to turn off. At least, with the default configuration. I can't see any way to disable the use of DirectX.

Cornelius Ellsonpeter

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

Java's better than it used to be... not that it's particularly beautiful or anything:

<picture goes here>

They're getting better at emulating the native windows Look and Feel, also. Glass is going to completely ruin their efforts, though.

Swing includes some basic HTML support, and there are full Java browsers out there. I couldn't tell you what they're called, though.

That's what I mean...the whole "metal" look is flat out ugly. Like I said, it looks like they hired a sheet metal worker to design it. Even the emulating of the Windows look is just bad. I can't imagine what would happen if they hired a woodworker to design a "wood" theme. Can you imagine if they turned radio buttons into doorknobs? Ack.

It looks cheap, even though under the hood there is a lot of work that went into Java. Why not take the extra time and hire a graphic artist to give it a more polished look? Apple got the "brushed metal" look pretty much right. Java's metal look has the appearance of something cranked out in a run-down machine shop. It's like a mid-80's attempt at GUI.