Another fine day at the QuirksMode test labs, where we test browsers so you don’t have to. Today’s topic is CSS gradients, and the subtle ways in which the various Android devices fuck them up. Also, the not-so-subtle ways in which Android devices fuck up screenshots of said gradients.

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This week I ran an eight-question survey of media query use, responsive web design fundamentals, and one viewport question. 1251 web developers reacted. This entry presents the results.

Most important conclusions:

• Nearly 50% of web developers (occasionally) use device-width and expect it to work the same as width. It doesn’t right now, but it will in the future.
• Many web developers are not aware that a cross-browser resolution check needs both the -webkit-device-pixel-ratio and the resolution media query.
• The most popular resolution query is “larger than 1.5;” a very welcome bit of sanity.
• ems in media queries are not used all that often — only 31% use it in more than 50% of their projects.
• 16% use more than five breakpoints in their responsive design.

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Last week Luke Wroblewski published an important article in which he said that web developers practising responsive design rely too much on a device’s screen size to determine which device it is.

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Currently I’m working on a media query test suite, and I’ve run into one of those weird things: the proper syntax of @media not.

Note that I’m only interested in the @media syntax. I cannot use the rest because I can’t fit it into my test suite.

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Now that we have the iPad Mini, web designers waste no time in wanting to distinguish between it and the iPad 2. Tough luck.

Yesterday Max Firtman explained in detail why that is not possible. Briefly, no JavaScript or CSS property, variable or media query is different on the iPad 2 and the iPad Mini. Both are 1024x768, neither has a retina screen, etc.

Incidentally, it appears that native developers can distinguish between the two, making the playing field for the grand match between native and web unleveled (disleveled?). If you wish you can blame Apple.

That’s not what I want to write about, though. Instead, it’s about web developers’ expectations and physical units in the W3C spec.

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In the past week I’ve done the viewport tests on the latest crop of devices, and things are definitely looking better. The visual viewport dimensions are now well-supported, and a consensus on position: fixed is in the making.

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I held a JavaScript library poll in the last three weeks, and it’s time to publish the results. At least 3,350 people responded. With nearly 155,000 responses in total, and nearly 1,700 for the least-answered question, I believe this poll is fairly representative of my readers and the readers of my readers, and therefore gives genuinely useful information about current JavaScript library use.

• On average, respondents used 3.5 libraries in the past year, and about 2 in more than 50% of their projects. (Of course the latter figure might mean they use one library in 50% of their projects, and another in the other 50%.)
• 95% used libraries, which means that 5% didn’t. That’s something, though not much.
• 59% could have done without a library in his last project. That’s not too bad, but it still means 41% could not.
• 42% sticks with his current libraries because learning to use a new one takes too much time.
• The most-used library is jQuery with 91%. Duh.
• Second-most used is Modernizr (58%), and then come underscore.js (33%) and backbone.js (30%).
• From 25-40% of the users of a library use it in at least 50% of their projects. For Modernizr, underscore.js, and especially jQuery this percentage is higher. For Zepto, Sencha Touch, and Raphael.js this percentage is considerably lower.

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Two weeks ago I published a poll about the use of JavaScript libraries. So far it had 97,500 responses, but I’d like to make that 100,000 or more. So here’s the poll again, and I request you to answer as many questions as you can stand.

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When I spoke at From the Front I was asked what I thought was the worst case of thoughtless copy/pasting I saw going on around the web. My answer: jQuery.

I feel that jQuery, even the mobile version, and in fact all current JavaScript libraries, are too heavy for mobile. I think it’s time for a re-evaluation of the libraries’ good and bad parts. I followed up in this tweet, which caused quite a few reactions.

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Yesterday Horace Dediu tweeted:

A browser is an infinitely flexible interface, but is it the best interface for everything? Apps allow experiments in new interaction models

The browser is not the most advanced interface there is. It’s too easy to build the wrong features into something as flexible as a browser, and once a badly-designed feature gains traction it’s impossible to get rid of it. (See HTML5 drag and drop.)

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Three news items that have nothing to do with each other, except they caught my eye yesterday and today, and might be of interest to others, too.

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