Martin Brooks is audbly seething about clueless web designers who can't even write browser detection Javascript that works across all the (narrow range) of Windows browsers they support.
These people are everywhere. I just went to fill in my timesheet
for the contract I'm doing through Kelly Services (well,
they're one of the intermediaries anyway). This is
the message I get:
For optimal performance, this product requires Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or above. Earlier versions of IE or other browsers may be used however you may not access full functionality.
Of course a timesheet is a really complicated piece of software. I mean, you've got to enter the time you started, the time you ended and the time you spent on lunch for every day of a whole week. This kind of bleeding-edge functionality just can't be done in your ordinary, plain-vanilla browser, you know!
The reason they've used this message is they have some "helpful" Javascript on the page which means that once you've entered the four-digit, 24-hour clock time into the field, it automatically moves you to the next form field. Because tabbing is definitely beyond the average user.
Except that if you make a mistake and click back into an already-filled field, the magic Javascript tabs you to the next field. So you have to--entirely intuitive this--click into the field before the one you want to edit, and the Javascript magic takes you to the field you actually want to edit.
Wow, you certainly couldn't do useful stuff like this in a cross-platform manner without spending megabucks, I'm sure!