(via digg) An interesting discussion has begun on Leland Scott‘s blog following his testing of Microsoft’s Atlas AJAX framework in various (non-IE) browsers.
The gist of Scott’s tests is that the Atlas code doesn’t work across all browsers. Most of the UI controls get a tick in the box when tested in Firefox, but in Opera and Safari most of them either fail or don’t work as expected.
This is obviously disappointing, given the amount of hype Atlas has had, and considering there are so many other great open source toolkits out there already that work in all modern browsers. Obviously in the rush to get Atlas out, “cross-browser” was interpreted by the Atlas developers to mean “make it work in Firefox”, with the “Community Technology Preview” stamp being used as an excuse for why the rest of them fail.
Unfortunately it’s difficult to take a lot of Scott’s reportage seriously, considering the blatant anti-Microsoft bias that shows through. Still, it’s the screenshots that tell the story, and with the surge in popularity of ASP.NET and the marketing campaign behind Atlas, the toolkit is certainly going to be in wide-spread use. So unless some big efforts are put into getting Atlas to work in more than just Firefox and IE before its 1.0 release, Web 2.0 is about to get fragmented.
Did somebody say browser wars?
Matthew MagainMatthew Magain is a UX designer with over 15 years of experience creating exceptional digital experiences for companies such as IBM, Australia Post, and sitepoint.com. He is currently the Chief Doodler at Sketch Group, Co-founder of UX Mastery, and recently co-authored Everyday UX, an inspiring collection of interviews with some of the best UX Designers in the world. Matthew is also the creator of Charlie Weatherburn and the Flying Machine.
