Re: - Web pages unstable after conditional comments added

Andy Dingley wrote:
On 24 Nov, 17:09, Chris Beall <Chris_Be...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
URL:http://ulsterliteracy.org/sandbox/ (all pages)

* Don't use conditional comments.

I would prefer not to. I would prefer to code to standards and not worry about individual browsers.


* Don't use display: table; - use <table> instead.

I would prefer not to. I like the concept of semantic HTML. There is no semantic link between the logo and the banner.



If your content merits using a "grid layout", then the HTML+CSS way to
do this is with a <table> element. If it doesn't warrant a grid, then
hiding this by just using CSS' display: table; is no excuse.

No it is not an excuse. It is a way to prevent audio UAs from presenting the data as tabular when it clearly is not.
Some day, perhaps, we will have grid positioning (http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-css3-grid-20070905/), but I'm not holding my breath.


CSS' table properties were added in a well-intentioned but doomed
attempt to use CSS as a presentation language for XML. They were never
intended for HTML use, other than being bound by default to <table>.
As a result, browser support for this is problematic.

In theory, in a fluffy abstract and orthogonal standards-based world,

Yes, that's the world I'm looking for. Especially the fluffy part. :-)

then any CSS property value could be applied to any element for which
it was permitted, not just those for which it is supported and works
correctly. But that's not the world we have to work in.

It's _sometimes_ (but rarely) worth arguing with a browser.

In this case I think it may be worthwhile. A failure that remains uncorrected from FF 2.0.0.20 through 3.5 (if that should prove to be the case), is worth fixing, particularly if it results in other obscure and intermittent symptoms. I agree that most folks would ignore or circumvent it and move on.

It used to
be an important task, as there was no other way to get things done.
It's less important now as most stuff does simply work as intended.
Where there's a good alternative (using <table>) and there's so little
to gain otherwise, it's just not worth it.

I almost skipped the conditional comments, even though the design failed on IE6, but I felt I couldn't ignore IE7, which had the same deficiency.

Fortunately, no one is paying me for doing this, so I can afford to pursue my own muse.

Chris Beall
.

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