[WEB4LIB] using float in IE/Netscape

[Chris Gray]

Well, you can't make older (in the float:left case, pre-Netscape 6 and
pre-IE 5.5) do CSS correctly.  CSS is designed to be backwards compatible
only in the sense that it "degrades gracefully".  Or as they put it at A
List Apart, all browsers can view the content, only standard-compliant
browsers can view the design.

It's a judgment call.  In arranging your image, heading and sub-heading
how big an issue is separation of content/design vs. getting your design
to older browsers vs. how much time you're spending macdinking your page?  
While the separation of content and design is good practice in general,
especially for site maintenance, it's mainly necessary where you expect
automated processing of the content to be used.

Note, however, that an external style-sheet is one form of automated
processing.  How likely are you to have dozens of pages with the same
arrangement of image and headings that you will want to be able to
rearrange by changing the style-sheet?

Chris Gray
Library Systems
University of Waterloo

footnote - from the Jargon File

macdink     /mak'dink/ vt.     [from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to
encourage such behavior] To make many incremental and unnecessary cosmetic
changes to a program or file. Often the subject of the macdinking would be
better off without them. "When I left at 11 P.M. last night, he was still
macdinking the slides for his presentation."

On Fri, 12 Apr 2002, Will Monroe wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> I have been lurking on the list for a few months now.  My question pertains to the use of a particular selector in CSS that doesn't seem to be working as I would have hoped.
> 
> I am using float with 'left' as the declaration to position an image inside of its parent, which is a div that formats a heading and subheading for the document inside the resulting box.
> 
> I referred to Eric Meyer's chart on CSS support in various browsers and did indeed find that support for float: left is buggy in some of the browsers.  
> 
> Since I am writing this page for a public library in which many of the browsers are a little older should I use tables instead?  I was attempting to separate style from structure as much as possible as the Webmaster for the library is also doing (I am a library student on an internship).  I would love some advice.
> 
> Thanks,
> Will 
> -- 
> 
> 
>