The new project is going to require multiple OS, Browser, and Office versions support. This is just a list of my ideal platforms to test for. In other words, “What I find acceptable to build modern platform tools to”.
- OS – OS-X, Linux, Windows Vista, and Windows XP (In order of growing priority, with the later two possibly swapping spaces in the next year or two)
- Browsers – FireFox, Opera, Safari, IE (I’m not even touching the absurdity of IE6 though)
- Office 2003, Office 2007. Anything earlier would be tested for only base functionality of new application development. I would hinge no decisions based on pre-2003 compatibility.
With this new project (of the dozens I seem to always be part of) I have the liberty of utilizing these exact environments. What I’ll end up with though is even easier to test with.
After a few initial discussions I’ve narrowed the testing versions for the various tools, OSs, and Browsers down. The finalist list of OS, Browser, and Office environments so far (always under the prospective of abridgement);
- OS – Windows XP, and Windows Vista (I would actually like to add in OS-X to the fray)
- Browsers – FireFox, IE, and just because I use it so much, I’ll test things in Opera.
- Office 2003 & 2007
The hardest part of the testing will be dealing with the differing code base between Office 2003 & 2007. One has ribbons, one has menus. One uses a particular DLL, the other has a different one. Bridging that gap so that installations and deployments go smoothly will be one of the difficult challenges in the coming days with this project.
With all that rambling and writing, I’m off to build some VMs.