Cross-browser tool

Question

Recommendation for tool(s) that can automatically scan and detect code that will have cross-browser problems. Basically, any tool that can make cross-browser easier.

EDIT1:
I know of most of the browsers and the main rendering engines to be tested. This is not really what I am asking.
I also know that it makes the most sense to, from the start, write code that adheres to standards and is cross-browser, and then hack in fixes for browser quirks, while using tests for each browser. But, I think everyone would agree that this isn't always possible.
What I am asking, is if anyone knows of or has worked on, a tool that can automatically scan for "common problems". Even if it's just for IE quirks. Something like those automated code auditors. Wouldn't this make life easier? Granted, it's impossible to get them all, and many (most) may not be reasonably possible to scan for.

What would be closer to an answer, if nobody has any tools like the above, would be just docs that outline common problems. Or better, lists with more than you really ever wanted to have to know about browser quirks.
Eg:
QuirksMode.org
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-ie2mozgd/
(What would be really nice if someone wrote tools to detect some of these)

EDIT2: And there are many things that you can scan for, and perhaps even automate, such as code that only uses MSXML, and proprietary CSS extensions.

EDIT3: Litmus and browsershots.org seems the closest to an answer.

Answer 1

Here are some tools to test for cross-browser incompatibilities:

• Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Opera
• Internet Explorer
• Lynx

I'm sure there are others...

Answer 2

I don't know of any code scanning tool, however Litmus (a commercial app) will allow you to compare results across a wide selection of browsers.

Answer 3

In addition to the list of browsers Charlie Somerville mentioned you can view your site in the various IE versions using IETester.

Sadly, I don't think there are any tools that do what you're after. The sheer volume of various differences and techniques across the different browsers would be huge. Not to mention the fact that each browser update would change those differences and techniques. The maintenance of that info would be horrendous!

At the end of the day, you can't beat hands-on manual testing with your browsers of choice. There are several sites dedicated to the "issues" with the more popular browsers that may help find code workarounds;

• http://www.positioniseverything.net/
• http://haslayout.net/

Answer 4

W3C Markup Validation Service

If you got this one valid, almost all modern browser will behave similarly.

Of course, this does not replace browsers test suite.

Answer 5

Yet another option would be BrowserSeal. Since it is an application and not a web service, it is much faster compared to pretty much everything else.

Answer 6

Litmus, Browsershots, Superpreview, and Browserlab are all used for screenshots. We've recently developed a new service called Browsera, which automatically detects cross-browser layout problems by comparing the results from all of the different browsers.

We developed the tool because scanning for W3C correctness wasn't sufficient to ensure a cross-browser compatible design, and because the only alternative was screenshots.

After analyzing a bunch of the different issues that cause these browser layout problems, we came up with the idea for Browsera. We realize this sounds like an advertisement, but your question is exactly the one we started with to develop Browsera.