> Is the import hack a candidate for first (or sole) item on the list of > standard hacks? > It seems pretty essential to me to get version 4 browsers to degrade > gracefully.
CSS hacks are one of those questions (like font sizes) that bring out the fanatics from all sides. On one side you will have people who are completely opposed to hacks. At the other end of the spectrum are people who use hacks scattered throughout their CSS. A lot of this stems from a difference between theory and reality. Theoretically it is bad to use any hacks. In reality, you or your client may need to get a layout to behave in a particular manor that cannot be achieved without some form of hack. Sometimes you can work around these issues without hacks, sometimes you can persuade clients that layout differences are not important, but other times there may be no alternative - this is a commercial reality. Basically, hacks come down to - personal choice - the amount of knowledge you have of workarounds - the specific design you are trying to achieve If you design your own layouts, you can often avoid hacks simply because you can be keeping the main browser issues in mind when designing (not so easy if you are implementing someone else's design). For this reason it is vital that you read up on all the major browser bugs - so you can head them off at the pass. The best place to go for the main IE bugs is here: http://positioniseverything.net/ The @import hack is one solid method of hiding content from older browsers - even though that it is not its intended purpose - which is why it is classified as a hack. For more on this go here: http://www.mail-archive.com/wsg%40webstandardsgroup.org/msg00841.html To see a tutorial that explains how to use the @import hack go here: http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/process/ The particular step in the tutorial dealing with older browsers is: http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/process/index_step10.cfm Which hacks would I use? I generally try to avoid any hacks apart from the @import hack, but will sometimes use the "display: inline" fix to avoid double margins on floats. I don't think I have ever used a box model hack. Work around where possible, hack sparingly, shower regularly. :) 2 cents Russ ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
