I'm not here to debate how Firefox dominates Internet Explorer or vice versa. No I'm here to talk about the silent battle we as web developers face each day as we strive "to make this look easy".

To put it simple… developing for the web is like dating multiple people at the same time and trying to please them all.  Anyone who develops applications for the web knows immediately what I am talking about. Those who do not… well this post is for you!

Nothing breaks our workspace silence like "what in the @!&$"... this sound usually means one of two things.  My frogs are barking again (yes I have a frog terrarium behind my desk)... or someone just pulled up their beautiful design in (insert your favorite browser here) and it looks like total crud.  Ah yes, what looks great in one browser will almost always look slightly different in another.

So how do we as developers deal with this? Well, while we try to make it look easy... truth is, that is not always the case. All of our developers have a minimum of 3 browsers installed on their computers with another 3 installed on test machines just down the hall.  So that's a minimum of 6 browsers to test on for those of you that were not counting.

I'll summarize:
• Internet Explorer 6
• Internet Explorer 7
• Firefox for Windows
• Firefox for Mac
• Safari for Windows
• Safari for Mac
• I'll throw in Opera just for fun (and a laugh)

Now you would at least think things would remain consistent between OS versions right? Not always the case.  So what do we do? Well since we can't force the general public to switch to Firefox (as much as I would like to) we TEST, TEST, and TEST again. Then test some more.

As we strive to maintain a perfect balance of "Production vs. Perfection", exceptions will always be there to bite you. Web technology is constantly changing and we as developers remain in a perpetual learning process.

So as you leave from work at 5:00 to head home to your family, just remember... there's a nerd out there banging his head on his keyboard all night, just to make your website look great.