This site we have been working on for a massive 4 days, including intergration with reasonably complex .net backend, and several flash components.
Out of some 25 pages there are maybe 9 unique templates and it has to look virtually the same on ie5+win ie5mac gecko1.4+ and safari 1.0 + (and though not required we are also testing on opera7.2)
Did we use some hacks... hell yes
maybe we aren't very good but to turn this site around we couldn't take the time to finesse everything, if a browser was behaving oddly we fixed that specific quirk, with a hack if necessary...
and we imported a separate style sheet for each ie5.
Normally I would say avoid using hacks by taking time to build the css properly, but sometimes one does not have that luxury. Plus I would most certainly prefer to put a hack in a css file than to add extra html. What do people feel about that? Is it better to have any mess in the css file, or in every html file?
Hacks are also a great stepping stone for a learner, if used properly. Let a learner concentrate on one thing at a time if they need to and let perfection come with experience.
On a well developed project most hacks can be avoided, but with any complex layout there is always the chance that some issue will call for desparate measures, especially after you have already had several rounds of client changes.
Yes hacks are probably an evil, but in the real world they are probably a necessary evil, or at least that is what I think
s
Andy Budd wrote:
*****************************************************Chris Blown wrote:
Its like losing your keys. I am the sort of person who still looks for my missing keys even though I have a spare set ready to go.. I just can seem to forget about it and find them later on, I am not really happy until I've found the missing set... The hack here is the spare set of keys, the solution until I find the missing set.. But I usually can't let it go.. unless I they are well and truly lost. ;)
I couldn't agree more. I think it's often the case of treating the symptoms rather than looking for the cause. If my CSS doesn't quite 'work' in a particular browser I tend to spend time finding out why and then coming up with an alternate method that will work.
A lot of people seem to throw a hack at the problem in an almost knee jerk reaction. Personally I'm yet to come across a CSS issue (touch wood) that couldn't be fixed by taking a different approach. Of course this often involves changing the mark-up which some people would take issue with.
One question I have, Is using a CSS selector that is not support by a certain browser, a hack? Some people think so..
Absolutely not. That's the beauty of CSS. Graceful degradation.
Andy Budd
http://www.message.uk.com/
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