MOST widely acceptable web programming language

[Diggsey]

the browser read them and display to us

 

No they don't...

 

The browser only ever sees javascript, html and css. PHP, ASP and JSP are converted to HTML on the server. The browser displays the HTML. All server side scripting languages can produce identical HTML...

[JcX]

OK. That's fine for me.

Perhaps my title is confusing in the computing terms.

Then I shall use

"What programming language is best for web design?"

 

So, what say you?

[Ashoat]

The browser only ever sees javascript, html and css.

Don't forget Java applets, Flash and ActionScript, and for IE, ActiveX.

[Little Bill]

It's gotta be CSS. Although. I'm pretty sure that what ever the browser it can see Flash, as flash is like an interactive image that you need a plugin for. I suppose some browsers have Flash plugin support and some don't.

[JcX]

I believed that Java applets wasn't so popular though.

I once tried to use some noob Java applet in my web,

and my friends don't even want to install Java applets on their browser,

in the end, they see nothing in my web.

[Ashoat]

Everyone, please note that HTML and CSS are not programming languages. Rather, they are markup languages.

[CriBaby]

As title, which web programming language is most widely accepted?

Different browsers support different language standard.

Some pages can only be displayed in IE, not FF, some only can be displayed in FF, not IE.

Talking about Opera, some said that it can display more types of langauge standard.

 

I've conducted a survey in another forum, some said Flash is most widely accepted, because as long as you can Flash plugin, you can view all the contents. Is that true?

Requiring a plug-in by definition makes something not accepted. Having something that's built-in to the browser makes it more accepted. So I would say that Flash is not the way to go. Besides, flash is extremely resource heavy, usually consumes a bunch of bandwidth, and if someone doesn't have that plug-in, your website becomes inept. Bad idea.

 

About CSS, I found many problems in FF with CSS. IE can display most CSS well, but not FF.

Incorrect. In reality, CSS displays more properly on FF than it does on IE. FF follows W3C standards. If you don't know what W3C is, they decide what the basic building blocks for all of the internet are. They decide when code is born and when code dies. If something is working properly on IE but not on FF, you need to find a different way to do it, because when Web2.0 is finally prevelant, your method will no longer work. Use www.w3schools.com (you must include the www) to see what's deprecated.

 

As far as PHP and ASP go, those are processed by the server. But others have already discussed that.

[Ashoat]

Incorrect. In reality, CSS displays more properly on FF than it does on IE.

Do you have a source for this claim? It seems rather dubious.

 

EDIT

After researching a little bit, you are indeed correct that Firefox 3 is better at CSS than IE 7. However, IE 8 is about the same.

[JcX]

EDIT

After researching a little bit, you are indeed correct that Firefox 3 is better at CSS than IE 7. However, IE 8 is about the same.

Well... I didn't do much research on that.

But from what I know, 2 years ago, IE can display most website than FF. But then I still stick to FF instead of IE. (actually, I uninstall IE from my machine)

Until now, honestly, I know more about FF, but not IE.

 

*For your information, I've got some torrents site from China, that only IE can open the link but not FF. It's sorta like a FTP link, but weirdly, FF cant link to that.

[CriBaby]

Incorrect. In reality, CSS displays more properly on FF than it does on IE.

Do you have a source for this claim? It seems rather dubious.

 

EDIT

After researching a little bit, you are indeed correct that Firefox 3 is better at CSS than IE 7. However, IE 8 is about the same.

 

I should have clarified. In IE8, Microsoft declared that they were going to do a better job at respecting the W3Consortium. IE8 and anything after that should handle CSS the way it was intended, not the way it can be abused.

 

That said, IE tends to display more sites than FF because of the fact that it doesn't stick to such a strict standard. By allowing deprecated tags and the changing of inline tags to block tags IE allowed for things that would normally take a few more lines of HTML, if not just a few more words. Basically, if you want to be lazy, IE is easier to program for. If you want to be proper, FF is the way to go.

[Ashoat]

People do indeed stick with a strict standard. That standard is IE 7's rendering engine

 

(Hey, I never said it was a good standard...)

 

Basically, if you want to be lazy, IE is easier to program for. If you want to be proper, FF is the way to go.

And if you want to have a decent website, you'll be compatible with both.

[CriBaby]

Touche. Wise man, you are.