A tool for web developers
Jason Lotito, web developer, owner of the PHP Complete Blog and a founding member of the PHP Developer's Network, has posted an interesting thread on using the Apple Safari browser on a Windows machine. If you are a web developer and work primarily in a Windows development environment, this is a necessary tool for you.
Until now you were able to effectively test web site rendering in Internet Explorer (quite possibly the worst piece of software ever produced by Microsoft), Mozilla Firefox (quite possibly the best piece of software ever produced, ever) and Opera. But trying to grab a snapshot of what a site would look like in Safari on a mac was a little more involved, usually requiring a developer to rely on screen shots from a web site. Well, thanks to Apple and the Safari development team, that time is at an end.
I went ahead an downloaded the Safari browser for Windows today. It installed in seconds on my XP Pro machine. It didn't require a restart or for me to close all currently opened windows. It just installed, then asked me if I wanted to launch it. Which I did. And fell in love with browsing all over again.
Sidebar: Please take what I am saying with a grain of salt. I am in no way planning on using Safari as my primary browser. As a developer, I am highly reliant on my extensions to get my work done. I need Greasemonkey, Firebug, Fire FTP, the Web Developer Toolbar, etc. And since there is no browser out there than can match the power of the extensibility of Firefox, that is my choice of browsers as a base for development. I am only mentioning Safari because now you don't have to cross all sorts of boundaries in order to get a clean view of rendering across browsers.
Safari is right on par with Opera in terms of overall CSS and HTML standards compliance. It is a fast loading browser that opens quickly and supports tabbed browsing. It has a lot of other features that a browser should have, like private browsing and easy history and bookmark management. The overall look and feel is a little weird for Windows users, but eventually you get over it. Just playing with the browser makes you want to play with it more.
I am impressed very impressed with this piece of software. I think Microsoft could stand to learn a thing or two from Apple. Good Job Apple. This rocks!
