John Horner wrote:
* floated elements too big for the enclosing element "spill out"
* except on IE, where they stretch the enclosing element
that's a bit simplified, but essentially correct, right?
Right.
For instance, with this code:
<div style="width:300px;height:100px;border:1px solid black;">
DIV A
<div style="width:100px;height:300px;border:1px solid red;float:left;">
DIV B
</div>
</div>
DIV B will overlap DIV A and continue down the page on its own unless
you're in IE in which case A will stretch.
Why limit it to floats? The same will/should happen to non-floats also.
My question is, *why* is the correct behaviour the first one? It
takes a lot of people by surprise and they often see what IE does as
the natural and obvious thing to do.
- div A has dimensions and they should be respected,
- no matter the size of the content: div B,
- except in IE/win, where we need workarounds.
A standard-compliant browser will let us choose if we want the container
to expand, or not. No height, or min-height only, on div A, and it will
behave as in IE/win across browserland. So, we are given alternatives.
IE/win has only one alternative: expand containers until the content
fits inside. Logical for a weak browser, but "not much" for a web designer.
Workaround in IE/win: http://www.gunlaug.no/contents/wd_1_02_02.html
... do the calculations that IE/win don't master.
regards
Georg
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