[AccessD] Web Applications

Hi, All,

Some further responses:

Mark,
"I challenge anyone to be proficient in all of the below with development
via text editor."
I did it for two years using just creaky old Notepad++, and a GREP tool. Of
course, I was using PHP/Apache/MySQL, which is suited to this development
style. I even took a shot at writing an MVC web framework in PHP, which,
while not ready for production use, showed promising results. Almost the
whole Ruby on Rails community uses Textmate.

Drew,
"If someone really wanted to learn to fly, I wouldn't recommend they start
with an SR-71 either! ;)"
I have to agree with you on this one. The opinion of certain local
developers who I respect is that ASP.NET is overkill. My 'over-the-shoulder'
view of the large ASP.NET project I was doing CSS consulting for was that
the group of young, talented developers where creating more mess than they
were solving. Using a super-fancy IDE doesn't absolve you of the discipline
required to make a successful project. And if you have the discipline, you
can do it without the super-fancy IDE.

William,
My "minimum effort" web development strategy is:
 * Use the subset of CSS 2.1 that IE7 supports
 * Develop the site in FireFox/FireBug (see "Browsers of 2009" link ... it
really is less effort to do it this way)
 * Tweak the site to work in IE7 (this requires *very* few changes from
standard CSS)
 * Work in IE6 to ensure the site is functional, and achieve 80%-96% of the
look of the site in the top-tier browsers

"...but less a few plug-ins I find useful for web work, IE8 is my
development browser for the moment ..."
I can't help but wondering whether the "few plug-ins I find useful" is
FireBug under FireFox. If IE8 provides developer tools superior to FireBug,
I'll consider switching, too.

"...I find the FF devotees akin to any other cult group .."
Without the FireFox gadfly, Microsoft would never have developed IE8. This
forced forward progress is good for all. It remains to be seen whether IE8
will staunch the losses Microsoft continues to suffer in the browser arena.

"...the practical matter is that IE remains the defacto user standard..."
The fact is there are real standards, maintained by the W3C. When you look
at compliance to *actual* standards, FireFox/Safari/Opera/Chrome are far
better than IE, although 8 closes the gap considerably. This is the
overwhelming consensus of the standards-based web development community.

-Ken