found drama

to be honest, i’m smitten with Apple’s Safari browser. I am, I admit it. For all the frustrating moments I’ve had with it, I think it has a lot of potential and really really want to see it succeed and come out on top as the premier browser for Mac. (Then with it being all open source, perhaps a Linux port…) I enjoy its look-&-feel and I like that Apple has made an effort to conform to the DOM (note: “made an effort”) so that you (as a web designer or developer) don’t have to fret too much over having to learn a whole other set of bothersome details w/r/t/ coding and compliancy. But (and I’ve blogged a little about this before) there seem to be a few kinks to be worked out still. So, Apple, if you’re listening, here is my Safari wishlist (so far):

1. True DOM conformance. Not doing too bad so far. Most of the javascripting I’ve done works w/o too much of a hitch … BUT (and this probably ties in directly w/ my next item) w/r/t/ XML — so far not going so well. Doesn’t seem to detect or display well, you know… Scripts read Safari as a non-XML-compliant browser. Damn.
2. An XML parser that works. So far my very much valid and well-formed XML documents either (1) don’t display or (2) render in the browser window in strange ways. Combinations of XML & CSS wind up failing — or at least, write out the XML document but w/o setting the margins and padding (for example) the way they’re written. Minimal success w/ schemas. *sigh* I was hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to XSLT … but that’s just b/c I would like to be able to test-render the documents locally (just by springing them open into Safari) rather than setting up a local server environment to test them on.
3. More control over browser settings. Take the cache, for example. Browser cache is great, but a lot of times (w/ this blog, for example) I’ve had to clear the cache and refresh the page to see my most recent post. I need to be able to tell Safari “check document against the cache” … or something along those lines. I’m not necessarily looking for the 101 (or whatever) Mozilla settings … but it would be nice to block “unrequested” windows instead of all pop-ups … not to mention blocking images not from the same server, etc. (I know, I know… “Why not just use Mozilla…”)

Guess that’s it, for now…

About Rob Friesel