Illuminati Karate

Cross-browser testing is one of the dreaded tasks of web development, largely because there’s no easy way to install multiple versions of each browser on the same machine. It can be forced, but having 3 versions of Internet Explorer, at least 2 versions of Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome all installed on the same computer is hardly appealing.

Microsoft’s SuperPreview, released as a beta last week, looked promising but in practice fell short in several key areas. The biggest problem is that although SuperPreview can snapshot a page in IE6 or any other browser, it’s just that: a snapshot. Layout bugs are just the beginning of IE6’s problems – it also falls short in both Javascript and CSS capabilities, which may not be evident in a screenshot. Furthermore, SuperPreview will eventually be a part of Expression Web 3, which is not free.

Continue reading “Dead Simple Browser Testing With Xenocode’s Browser Sandbox” »

Microsoft has just unveiled the beta of a new product for web developers: Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer. If it delivers on its goals, it promises to change the lives of web developers as fundamentally as Firebug.

Expression Web SuperPreview lets you view your website in IE6, IE7, IE8 and any other web browser you have installed, and switch between them as you please. That means you can switch between viewing your website in Shiretoko (Firefox 3.5 beta), Internet Explorer 6, and the Safari 4 beta with the click of an icon. You can even compare them side by side. Perhaps the coolest feature is that you can overlay the different renderings on top of each other in an onion-skin mode, allowing you to fully appreciate the Cuil-like approach IE6 takes to rendering webpages.

Continue reading “Microsoft’s New Expression Web SuperPreview Makes Cross-browser Testing Painless” »