I am interested in the current opinion of the relevance of css hacks for explorer 4.0.x & 5.0.x specifically in regards to the Box Model Hack. I understand the problem associated with the box model in ie4 & 5 but have begun to question the need for hacks in your css for these browser versions.
In an attempt to design for versions of ie < 6.0 I attempted to download versions 5.0 and 4.0. Fisrtly ie4 is no longer on the microsift explorer download page and has to be sourced elsewhere. Secondly if you have a later version of ie on your system it wont install an earlier version anyway. This leads me to think that anyone using ie 4 or 5 have either had to make an effort to remove a later vesion of ie to install the earlier version or has not updated their browser. And in order to actually test in ie 4 o r 5 I'll need to install it on another machine. I know this is sounding like a lame excuse for not designing for < ie6 but at what point do we stop disigning for minority users who (given the fact that microsoft loves to remind to update its products) have most likely chosen to not update or dont have internet access and therefor wont be viewing your site anyway. I have a great interset in making degradeable cross platform/browser sites but dont want to get so bogged down in hacks that code becomes disorderly and problemetic, especially when ie7 is released. Does anyone else have an opinion on this? I realise its an old issue and remember having discussions with fellow students at Uni a few years ago. But with the implementations in ie6 and the ones to come in ie7 perhaps its time to finally stop worrying about ie 4/5 ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
