Cross Browser Testing

No matter how anxiously expected, the release of IE8 hasn’t resulted in the end of the support for the old, deprecated, IE6 rendering engine. Giving us, the web developers, need to test against yet another version of IE.

Hopefully the eighth version is going to be a lot easier to test and support since it’s more standards compliant and in that perspective, much closer to the other modern browsers. It’s also comes with easier debugging functionality as it has an integrated set of [developer tools](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd565628(VS.85).aspx) available by pressing F12 or by clicking ‘Developer Tools’ under Tools menu.

But right now, together with other major players (Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome) you can end up with a total of 7 browsers to test. You might even want to test different versions of individual browsers, transforming this task into a nightmare. Fortunately tools, allowing you to compare different rendering engines in a single unified interface, are emerging and can really save the day. Two great examples are:

1. Microsoft Expression Web SuperPreview
2. DebugBar IETester

For a complete list of browser’s compatibility, check the great Compatibility Master Table from QuirksMode.