[WEB4LIB] Re: Netscape and the thin black line

[Rob Weidman]

Thanks Andrew,

I had not seen this article before (have not been on this list for too 
long) and it answers all of my questions (and hopefully vicki's too)...

thanks so much for your help
-rob-

Andrew Mutch wrote:

> I thought that this article had been mentioned here before but maybe not:
> 
> http://developer.netscape.com/evangelism/docs/articles/img-table/
> 
> Eric Meyer explains why this is occuring in Mozilla-based browsers and how to
> correct the problem. From the article:
> 
> "There is one obvious fix-- stop creating designs that are dependent on tables and
> sliced up or single-pixel images-- but it's not terribly practical for many
> designers, and it sure doesn't help fix old designs that are suddenly blowing
> apart in recent browsers. There's another obvious fix, which is to make sure your
> document doesn't trigger the "strict" rendering mode. You can do this by using an
> HTML Transitional DOCTYPE with no URL, or not having a DOCTYPE at all."
> 
> I would encourage anyone who works on web sites to read the entire article to
> understand how new browsers are affecting how we design our web sites..
> 
> Andrew Mutch
> Library Systems Technician
> Waterford Township Public Library
> Waterford, MI
> 
> Rob Weidman wrote:
> 
> 
>>These posts made me check a site I had worked on a while ago - I used
>>tables in this fashion (probably much too heavily) to create a curved
>>navigation bar so wanted to make sure it looked o.k. in netscape 6
>>
>>well, what would you know: it has similar problems in netscape 6 as
>>vicki describes, though it has always looked fine in IE and earlier netscape
>>
>>I used the xhtml transitional dtd for the site, and I have found that
>>the page displays correctly in netscape 6 as soon as I take out the
>>xhtml doctype declaration: vicki - is your page xhtml?
>>
>>could anyone tell me why netscape 6 does this - is this a correct
>>implementation of the xhtml dtd? - and what the best solution would be.
>>
>>thanks
>>
>>-rob-
>>
>>Rob Weidman <row3 at lehigh.edu>
>>Cataloging Librarian
>>Lehigh University
>>Library & Technology Services
>>
>>Vicki Falkland wrote:
>>
>>
>>>reply to the list instead of individuals due to numerous personal responses.
>>>
>>>i've become intrigued by this little bit of code.
>>>
>>>i've tried all suggestions: removed white space, put code all on one line,
>>>added height="1" to <td>, added <br> after <img> ... a bunch of things (oh,
>>>and obviously i've included bgcolor which i neglected to include that in my
>>>original question).
>>>people keep telling "i do <this> and it works for me". well, i paste their
>>>code into MY editor, display it in NS6, and i get a fat black line.
>>>older Netscapes display it fine, IE displays it fine.
>>>whats up with NS6 ??
>>>or am i STILL missing something??
>>>
>>>v.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>>>>From: "Vicki Falkland" <library at cryptic.rch.unimelb.edu.au>
>>>>>>To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>>>>>>Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 7:40 PM
>>>>>>Subject: [WEB4LIB] Netscape and the thin black line
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hi folks,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Once upon a time, it was possible to create a thin black line across
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>part
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>of a table with the following code:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>><td>
>>>>>>><img src="blank.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="" >
>>>>>>></td>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I've been looking at one of our older, defunct sites on newer versions
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>of
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>Netscape, just out of curiosity.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Funny thing is, Navigator stand-alone 4.08 displays it just fine, but
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>newer
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Netscapes (6+) don't collapse the table row to a thin line - it
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>displays
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>it
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>at full height as if there were text in it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I know that folk here in general say this practice is "not on", that it
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>is
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>not "good design", but I really am curious. A lot of sites still do
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>this.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>How do they get this "thin black line" to display in Netscape?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Or have I missed something entirely???
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>vicki
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>