I don't worry about older browsers per se, but like Rudy it's the @import trick I use to keep the design work hidden from horrors like Netscape 4.7 (and I'm most pleased of myself I've not used a single CSS hack in about a year now). I've never understood the mentality to do browser sniffs or deliver different content to different browsers - if you do your job properly you shouldn't need to, even with the plethora of bugs, quirks and inconsistencies we see in all the browsers out there (although I'd love to see IE dead or Microsoft get their asses in gear, read the specs and stop acting like children - although we would need to see the end of the Compuserve "PNG will kill GIF - please keep it alive for us" backhander conspiracy to do it properly).
As to Netscape 4.7 being dead? We're never going to be that fortunate and forget about the lil sucker completely, but there's plenty you can do CSS trickery-wise to stop it from fouling up our work. David: > When IE does eventually get officially abandoned by Microsoft... I doubt this will ever happen, although it's probably for reasons of mad conspiracy on my part!! However awful it may be for us professionals to code for, or more accurately how easy it is to code for but it's insanely inaccurate forgivings make it difficult to code cross-platform *correctly*, it's still, IMO, the easiest browser for Joe Soap public to use, requires no pratting about installing (it's available straight out of the box to the majority of computer owners in the world - boy I wish new computer users would by a Mac once in a while!) and while it holds the biggest market share, it can serve to allow Microsoft to dictate the direction if Web development and sway the standards should they so choose. How long can W3C hold out saying "but Mr. Gates, the browser that has 90,000% market share does things wrong"? I can honestly see the day coming when IE7 still refuses to implement standards correctly or completely and W3C buckle under the pressure and re-write things to accomodate Microsoft's steadfast reluctance to do things correctly. Either that or be made to look foolish and a waste of time. What about PNG? Surely to god IE can use PNG transparency natively by now? Of course it can't (note: anybody know if IE7 can do it?) because if it could there would be no reason to use the GIF format any more (OK, I still find even PNG-8 to be a little weighty compared to GIF but with broadband connections becoming more commonplace throughout the world it's not going to be an issue for much longer). And with no reason to use GIF, it's possible that the *creation* of such images will no longer be supported by the graphics packages out there. In short: Compuserve don't get their royalties no more, and that's an awful lot of money. Can anybody see a little backhander from Compuserve to Microsoft here? If the most proliferent browser still makes the use of GIF-killer more hassle than it's worth then there's every reason to keep GIF alive. And before Microsoft lawyers start banging my door down after illegally reading this e-mail, I would like to point out that these are my own thoughts and opinions - I make no claims of their accuracy (although how much does Free Speech cost these days?), but if you get riled about it maybe I touched a nerve there, eh? Just realised the time - I think I better get back to work! MOU who's off to take his paranoia medication now :D ____ • The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM • ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: "set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword" in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
