Guide
to the
Pinnell Mountain Trail
Which browser should I use?
(February 2006)
Updated on December 11, 2007, Update comments are in red. A partial evaluation of Icab has been added.
I evaluated 5 browsers for the Macintosh using the Guide to the Pinnell Mountain Trail: Firefox 1.5.0.1 (2.0.0.8), Netscape 7.2 (9.0.0.3), Safari 1.3.2 (3.04), Internet Explorer 5.2.3, Opera 8.52 (9.24) and Icab 3.2. Before each evaluation, I cleared the history since theoretically the browser looks at the history to determine the color for the link. I also cleared the cache.
This is a simple web site, three frames with jpeg files being loaded into the two right hand frames. There are no bees flying around and nothing flashing to tell you that you have won something that you want but will have to pay dearly for. The upper-right frame contains a section of the map and the lower-right frame contains the legend or one of the small jpegs. The main frame is the left frame. The large photos are loaded into a blank page. None of the browsers was capable of indicating whether a particular large photo had been loaded before.
For each browser I evaluated the time to launch the site, the time to launch the home page for the Guide to the Pinnell Mountain Trail, and the time to download the high res. and low res. maps. I looked at how quickly the individual map pages were displayed the first time they were downloaded and how quickly they were redisplayed from the cache. I noted: how the large photos were displayed; how the links were updated. how the text size could be changed from the keyboard and how the individual miles printed out on paper.
The browsers with test results are listed below in order of my preference. If Safari had rendered the frame background colors correctly, I would have rated it either first or second. The top three browsers are very close, and Internet Explorer and Safari provide an excellent printout of the left frame without wasting ink.
Browser: Firefox 1.5.0.1 (2.0.0.8)
Time to: bottomdollar.us: 5 sec.
Pinnell home page: Text immediate, background appeared in 1 chunk after15 sec.
Download low res. map: 17 (30) sec. Downloaded into a new tab.
Download high res. map: 61 (70) sec. Downloaded into a new tab.
Loading of individual mile page: 6 sec for Eagle Summit, 4sec for Mile 1
Re-rendering of individual mile page :No whiteout, instantaneous.
Appearance of individual mile page: Excellent map rendered continuously
Appearance of large photos: Only 2 Borders, left and top. Bottom border with word "Done" if status bar is turned on. Even though Firefox uses tabbed browsing, the large pictures go into a new window without toolbars at the top.
Updating of link color: Works except for large photos. If large photo is downloaded all links which call for the loading of a blank page are turned on.
Changing of text size: Command+ and Command-. Works and only effects the text.
Printing: Entire frameset is Printed (you get the text, the map and either the legend or one of the small photos) The background colors are printed which tends to degrade the text. This may have been the case in the previous evaluation but I didn't make note of it.
Browser: Netscape 7.2 (9.0.0.3)
Time to: bottomdollar.us: 5 sec.
Pinnell home page: Text immediate, background appeared in 1 chunk after 16 sec.
Download low res. map: 17 (29) sec. Downloaded into a new tab, which is not active until you click it.
Download high res. map: 62 (70) sec. Downloaded into a new tab, which is not active until you click it.
Loading of individual mile page: 6 sec for Eagle Summit, 5sec for Mile 1.
Re-rendering of individual mile page :No whiteout, instantaneous.
Appearance of individual mile page: Excellent map rendered continuously. Small photos not rendered at proper size. Now rendered properly
Appearance of large photos: Beautiful borders all the way around. No status bar even though there is one in the frameset. Photo is scaled to 97%. No longer scaled to 97%, borders on all but right side, status bar present. Even though Netscape uses tabbed browsing, the large pictures go into a new window without toolbars at the top.
Updating of link color: If a large photo is downloaded all links which call for the loading of a blank page are turned on, and then only if the page is refreshed. Small photo links also only change color after the page is refreshed. Refreshing the page takes time so forget about keeping track of where you have been. Same as before, however refreshing the page is no longer necessary.
Changing of text size: Command+ and Command-. Works and only effects the text.
Printing: Entire frameset is Printed (you get the text, the map and either the legend or one of the small photos). The background colors are printed which tends to degrade the text. This may have been the case in the previous evaluation but I didn't make note of it.
Browser: Internet Explorer 5.2.3
Time to: bottomdollar.us: 6 sec.
Pinnell home page: Text immediate, background appeared in 1 chunk after 16 sec.
Download low res. map: 17 sec.
Download high res. map: 64 sec.
Loading of individual mile page: 4 sec for Eagle Summit, 4sec for Mile 1
Re-rendering of individual mile page :Whites out and then puts the entire page up at once.
Appearance of individual mile page: Good. Map rendered in two unequal chunks.
Appearance of large photos: Only 2 Borders, left and top. Bottom border with word "Done" if status bar is turned on
Updating of link color: Works except for large photos. Large links did not change color even when the page was refreshed
Changing of text size: Command+ and Command-. Works and only effects the text.
Printing: Only the left frame is printed. Safari and IE5 print the clearest text of all the browsers and do not print the background color.
Browser: Safari 1.3.2 (3.04)
Time to: bottomdollar.us: 4.5sec.
Pinnell home page: Text in 2 sec., background rendered in small chunks and was complete in 15 sec.
Download low res. map: 17 (30) sec.
Download high res. map: 64 (70) sec.
Loading of individual mile page: 5sec for Eagle Summit, 4sec for Mile 1.
Re-rendering of individual mile page :No whiteout, instantaneous.
Appearance of individual mile page: The background color of the two right frames is not rendered leaving white areas. Map rendered in two chunks.
Appearance of large photos: No borders. However, scroll bars appear on the right and bottom and not all of the picture is shown (may have missed this in 1.3.2).
Updating of link color:Safari is absolutely clueless about this. Refreshing the page does update the small picture links. I may have missed this before.
Changing of text size: Command+ and Command-. Works and only effects the text.
Printing: Only the left frame is printed. Safari and IE5 print the clearest text of all the browsers and do not print the background color.
Browser: Opera 8.52 (9.24)
Time to: bottomdollar.us: 5 sec.
Pinnell home page: Text immediate, background appeared after 15 sec.
Download low res. map: 17 (21) sec.
Download high res. map: 62 (71) sec.
Loading of individual mile page: 6 sec for Eagle Summit, 4sec for Mile 1
Re-rendering of individual mile page :No whiteout, instantaneous.
Appearance of individual mile page: Good, map rendered continuously, but not smoothly. The legend is rendered correctly when the page first comes up but the small photos are rendered smaller than they should be and black bars are added to the frame on either side. When the legend is again called up the black bars remain.
Appearance of large photos: Only a top border with web site URL.
Updating of link color: Works except for large photos. If large photo is downloaded all links which call for the loading of a blank page are turned on. However to see the large links change you must reload the page.
Changing of text size: The zoom command affects everything on the page. Command+ doesn't work and Command- shrinks things almost out of sight. The * key will bring your view to 200% (this may be repeated) and from there the - key will drop the size in steps. You may also use Zoom in the View menu.
Printing: Prints each frame separately so you get three sheets of paper. The Background color is printed so you run out of ink. Once you're out of ink and paper, why bother. I got 4 sheets, the first had all three frames with background color (identical with Firefox and Netscape). The individual frames were then printed out with the background color occupying the entire page. At least now you can tell the computer to print only the first page.
Additional: Use the web site buttons for navigation and stay away from the Browser navigation buttons. The browser wierds out easily. The browser navigation buttons worked better with rewind, forward and back working perfectly. Fast forward usually didn't work and when it did it loaded the lower right frame into a new page.
Browser: Icab 3.2
Download low res. map: 24 sec. in a new window.
Download high res. map: 73 sec. But downloaded to the desktop.
Re-rendering of individual mile page :whiteout, took 1 second
Major problem with rendering of the fonts from the cascading style sheet.
Appearance of individual mile page: Good. Map rendered in two equal chunks.
Appearance of large photos: No left border
Changing of text size:Command = sets size to what the web page calls for. Command shift = (aka command +) increases the text size and command - decreases the text size. Other browsers allow command = and command + to be used to increase the size of the text.
Printing: Don't bother! Everything is printed way to large with the left frame being quite narrow.