Don't most web designers create sites for clients? Even if Microsoft were to change tomorrow, there would still be a large number of legacy browsers out there that will constitute several years worth of income streams for your customers.johnperkins21 wrote:No. If you code to the current standard and it does not display properly on IE, too bad. If enough people stand up and fight for compliance and compatibility, Microsoft will have to change. As it is now, they get away with it because of your solution: hack your code until it works with IE. That's bs. IE should work with the current standards. It's not like they don't know about them, they just choose to ignore them because they can.
I do however understand if you're creating a site for a client, you have to code for IE. It is your responsibility to know which browswers support what. I just think that the standards are out there and if we continue to put up with browsers (esp. the most popular of the buch) not supporting the standards, what's the point of even having the w3c in the first place?
Customers aren't interested in standards wars, they are interested in *their* content appearing how *they* want it on *their* web site in whatever browser *their* viewers might care to use. You can't take your moral position on standards to the grocery store. You need to give your clients what they want if you want to get paid.
On the other hand, by knowing the strengths and weaknesses of browsers vs standards, you should be able to tell how easy it will be to implement, through standards, the customer's vision. With a little discretion you might be able to steer the customer away from asking for features that break standards, or charge more for those that do -- which is reasonable considering the extra labor it requires.
Do your standards crusading on your own dime, not on the customer's.