[Using Sakai] [Building Sakai] Support for additional browsers

[David C. Minugh]

As an non-developer nearly-end user, I would like to 
see some sort of early-warning system for end-users.

    When Microsoft releases a beta version, you 
(should) know that you are using an as-yet unfinished 
program, and that there may be problems. But when 
MS/Mozilla/Google/etc says, "Here's the latest, 
greatest version of ...", a sizeable number of staff 
and students are going to be early adaptors and install 
the new version (the reverse of the 
university-controlled system where IE7/etc/etc still 
reigns because "We're not sure about IE8 and don't have 
the time to roll it out").
    We know that both browsers and SAKAI are evolving 
all the time; there will always be transitions. End 
users will vary in what seems attractive at a given 
time. But what end-users DO need is a *"Don't upgrade 
browser X to version Y yet"* warning if major problems 
may occur.
    I trust the developers to signal to the community 
which problems are blockers; I'd nominate inability to 
upload/or vanishing assignments, problems in the T&Q 
area, and anything that endangers documents required 
for completing studies. Relatively minor problems will 
always exist (it took Scandinavian programmers well 
over a decade to find consistent ways around IBM's 
initial disbelief in accented characters like å and ä).
    In terms of responsibility for disseminating such 
warnings, I would assume that developers need to be the 
instigators, but individual schools need to be the 
implementers I've looked at our version, and there 
isn't a trace of a user-oriented discussion of 
browser-related problems, although such warnings are 
common enough in many programs.

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David C. Minugh                			E-mail: David.Minugh at english.su.se
Director of Studies	                        Tel: (+46) 8 16 36 11
English Department                      	Cell phone: (+46) 70 - 23 14 777
Stockholm University                    	Office: E 877, Frescati