[WEB4LIB] CSS support

[Thomas Dowling]

At 05:55 PM 4/18/2002, D.S.P. Popeck wrote:
>Can anyone please offer comments on style sheet support in the IE 6.X and NN
>6.x browsers? ie problems and anomalies experienced. I just got around to
>adding Netscape 6.2 for testing purposes and it is much slower than the
>previous version (and it is noticably slower than IE or Opera.) I have not
>upgraded IE beyond version 5.5. Thanks.

There have been lots of comments on the list, searchable in the archive.

The main change with IE6 regarding CSS support is its use of "doctype 
sniffing" to determine if it should replicate some IE5-type 
quirks.  Details at 
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/css/overview/CSSEnhancements.asp#doctype_switch>. 
The biggest difference between its quirks mode and standards mode is in how 
they interpret the CSS box model.  Quirks mode renders CSS boxes in a way 
that we might call "wrong."  Standards mode uses a method we could call 
"more nearly right."

Mozilla-based browsers, including Netscape 6.x, do similar doctype 
sniffing, though I don't recall there being any CSS differences between its 
two modes.

In general, CSS support in the current versions of IE, Netscape, and Opera 
is very good, especially on pages where IE6 works in standards mode.  You 
have to get into some pretty advanced stuff to turn up rendering flaws, 
like <http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/complexspiral/demo.html> for 
example.

As for Netscape 6.2's performance, it is built on Mozilla 0.9.4.  (You 
already know that it has nothing in common with Netscape 4.x except the 
name, right?)  Several of the more recent Mozilla releases have 
concentrated on performance issues, and it has improved a lot.  It will 
never be a speed burner (especially on older workstations), but isn't the 
embarrassment it once was.

Mozilla 1.0 release candidate 1 was published yesterday.  My guess is there 
will be a Netscape built on Mozilla 1.0 by midsummer.



Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu