Mark-up
The site mark-up is Transitional HTML4.01, as specified by W3C. It is preferable to use the strict form of HTML 4.01 but this would not be appropriate considering we wanted Netscape 4.x to be able to view this site! The mark-up has been checked via the W3C. The site will work in text-only browsers, although you miss out on all the pretty pictures!
Plug-ins
Plug-ins are only used to enhance content in the site. To obtain the (free) Chime plugin please visit http://www.mdlchime.com/chime/.
Browser Compliance
This site has been designed to display its content with reasonable continuity in all agents. The following table logs browser-compliance:
| Rendering Agent | Compliance |
|---|---|
| Gecko (eg. Mozilla) | Complete |
| Opera 6+ | Complete |
| MSIE 5+ | Complete |
| Opera 5.x | Good - no support for Greek letters. |
| Netscape 4.x | Poor - images and captions get jumbled, but otherwise content is intact. |
As can be seen, browser testing has not been exhaustive. My recommendation is to at least use a version 5 browser.
The site uses the PNG image format almost exclusively, however MSIE 5 and below displays PNG images with mildly incorrect colours. Consider upgrading to MSIE 6.
The site is currently not appropriate for most mobile devices since the bulk of the layout is contained in a <table> element, this will be addressed in the fuure and CSS positioning used instead.
Plans
I plan to:
- Make the site compatable with browsers for the blind.
- Code the site CSS for other medias (e.g. for print, so all pages print well.)
Site Development
The site was developed using Notepad, and numerous agents.
It was completed on xx-Jun-2002.
Max Howell
Chemistry with Industrial Experience
The University of Bristol