Die, ActiveX, die!
May I rant? I think I may, this is my site after all. Having been an interpreter in a former life, I have been trained to use standard tongue in any language I use. Dialects may be understood, but they make communication harder. And what is hard for human beings may be impossible for computers - deviations from standards usually result in errors. This is one reason why I am a very strong opponent of any website or networked application that is "made for IE".
Why is it necessary to write HTML, Javascript or CSS especially for the one browser that violates or ignores all kinds of standards? Why not write standard code and accept that IE is not able to display a few things correctly? Other browsers will be able to...
But this is still nothing. Other browsers have learned to at least disguise themselves as Internet Explorer, so users do not need to worry about funny error messages, like asking you to upgrade your 2011 browser to one from 2001 ... So what can you do to throw them out? Simple: Use ActiveX!
In case you do not know: An ActiveX element is a piece of software that a website installs on your computer - to access that website. Indeed, for some sites it is not sufficient to use the Internet Explorer to access that site, you still need ActiveX on top of it! Security issues? Pah...
If you have been browsing the web for a while, using all kinds of browsers on different operating systems, you may ask now why someone would need ActiveX to access a website when you and me can do so without. Well, fasten your seatbelt: My current employer purchased some kind of collaboration software written in Java and running on a Windows machine. That site requires (in 2011) "IE6 or higher", according to the error message I get with any other browser than IE. But the best...
There is a window for a "message center" on the site. I never saw anything inside other than a question mark when I used Firefox/Chrome on Windows. Then I used IE and was surprised to see - text. Yes, those experts managed to require ActiveX to display text on a website! I am completely flabbergasted by so much professional expertise...
Since I complained, the software company will send someone next week to try and "enlighten" me. I am looking forward to his futile attempts at answering my questions...
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