Concerning this Site
and issues related to Browsers

This site makes use of certain web technologies which may not be fully compatible with some browsers. These technologies include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Portable Network Graphics (PNG).

CSS
CSS is used to control the formatting of the text and links, as well as the way background images and colours appear. This technology is generally compatible with version 5 and up browsers, and enjoys some limited compatibility with version 4 browsers.

PNG
PNGs are used for many of the images found throughout the site because of their greater flexibility (compared with GIFs and JPEGs) and because of their support for alpha transparency. If certain images look out of place or appear as though they are being incorrectly displayed then your browser may be experiencing difficulty with the PNG format. PNG enjoys varying levels of support from most browsers (details below). Links to more information on both these technologies can be found at the bottom of the page.

Which browsers work better?

Generally speaking the higher a browsers version number the more compatible it will be with modern web standards. For the most part compatibility levels are good in any version number above 5, but this is not always the case.

Internet Explorer - css: varies ; png: no
Internet Explorer has a history of improving some functions with each new release, while degrading others. Version 6 of this browser shows the greatest compatibility with CSS, XHTML and more compared to the rest of its family, but tests have shown that other older items which were never an issue with v5 no longer function correctly. It also sufferes from chronic difficulties in dealing with technologies for which Microsoft offers a competing product (almost everything). It is unfortunate that IE is the most commonly used browser considering its many shortcomings.

Netscape, Mozilla - css: yes ; png: yes
Netscape 6, Netscape 7, Phoenix (Win), Chimera (Mac) and any other browsers based upon Mozilla and its open source rendering engine Gecko can be expected to deliver a consistent browser experience, good standards compatibility, and much like IE a glut of features*. However the majority of Mozilla-based browsers suffer from slower browsing speeds and unstable features. They are, however, stable on the whole and wll rarely render anything incorrectly.

* Phoenix and Chimera are both still in the beta stages of development and as such are still feature light. With any luck they shall remain that way.

OmniWeb - css: varies ; png: yes
OmniWeb is an excellent browser available for Mac OS X, offering a sleek and graceful user experience as well as a host of intelligent features lacking in other browsers. Sadly its standards compatibility in terms of CSS and Javascript leaves something to be desired, which is preventing it from dominating its competition. Improvements in these areas are promised in version 5 (currently under development), but whether that arrives before Chimera or Safari leaves beta remains unknown.

Opera - css: yes ; png: yes
As Windows browsers go there are few (if any) better than Opera. It is swift, compatible and offers a feature set which is full and innovative without being glutted. Unfortunately the Macintosh version of this browser is far from being as good as its brother (and I have ne experience with the *nix versions of it). While not perfect it offers a better all around expereince to Windows users than do any of its competitors.

Safari - css: yes ; png: yes
Safari is the brand new browser from Apple (beta version 1) released January 7th for Mac OS X. Based on the powerful, light-weight and enormously swift KHTML rendering engine (open source; also found in Linux browser Konqueror), Safari has lept close to the front of the Mac-browser pack at light speed. Though light on features (the way most beta browsers are) it has many of the important ones desired by users and promises to make the competition in this market many times stiffer. The speed with which this browser leaves beta combined with the extent and contents of its final feature set may very well have placed the first nail in the coffin of most other browsers on Mac OS X.