Cross browser down to
8 is a must, 7 and or 6 (rarely) depending on the client and the target audience. But that's just my point of view.
I haven't heard much of it lately (possibly because responsive is the buzz word these days) but it used to be a heated debate. "progressive enhancement vs graceful degradation" to summarise...
- Graceful degradation is the practice of building an application for modern browsers while ensuring it remains functional in older browsers.
- Progressive enhancement is the practice of building an application for a base level of user experience, but adding functional enhancements when a browser supports it.
moving along though, someone beginning with front end development, I would assume, would need a solid 24 months under their belt before they'd really be getting serious. that takes us to 2015.
1. IE7+6 will be dead by then, and 8 will be slowly dwindling as more win users will be moving away from XP to 7 or (heaven forbid) 8. both of which can support IE9 + IE10. IE9 is an OK browser, but they are back in the game with IE10, it's not better than any other major browser, but at least its comparable, and it seems to handle html5/css3 as good as the rest.
2. The rest of the world will be using firefox54386 or chrome9954345 (if current updates are anything to go by) or some other fantastical browser that simply reads your mind...
3. The myriad of mobile, smartphone and tablet devices that will be on the market in two years time. it would be ridiculous not to consider that this would and should play a huge influence into someones decision-making when deciding what path to go down.
4. HTML5 will be a "official" spec by then, not that that really means anything but it will be the STANDARD by which everyone plays. By that I mean the "base level of user experience" as mentioned above. No one will realistically be using html40.1 anymore anyway. seriously.
http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/html5-2014-plan.html
5. You tube is owned by google and google loves this...
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/microdata/master/
http://support.google.com/webmaster...70&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=-18w7pquq0lhpd&cbrank=1
and this
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/recommendations-for-building-smartphone.html
both of which are best served up with html5. (and google also owns chrome - the most widely used browser)
6. responsive web design - google it.
7. If I haven't convinced you yet winterblues... consider the varying options. (check the lastest version dates.)
HTML5.1
- http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/introduction.html
HTML5 -
http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/CR-html5-20121217/
xhtml1.1 -
http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/REC-xhtml11-20101123/
html4.01 -
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/
8. html4.01 is the majority of html5 anyway.
9. As for your iframe problem frank, I just did a google search and came across this.
http://blogs.missouristate.edu/web/2011/05/20/iframes-html5-and-older-versions-of-internet-explorer/
HTML:
<iframe id="MyIframe" name="MyIframe" src="http://my.iframe.src/"></iframe>
<script>
if(document.attachEvent) {
var OldIframe = document.getElementById("MyIframe");
var NewIframe = OldIframe.cloneNode(true);
//no scrollbars - overflow:hidden works for other browsers
NewIframe.setAttribute("scrolling", "no");
// IE8 and lower add a special border on frames.
// It's actually in addition to the css border property.
if(!document.addEventListener)
NewIframe.setAttribute("frameBorder", 0);
OldIframe.parentNode.replaceChild(NewIframe, OldIframe);
}
</script>
I havent had a chance to try it out , but give it a burl and let me know if it fixes the issue. personally I dont use iframes that much, and "while ensuring it remains functional in older browsers." - a border in older IE's doesn't really phase me.