[CLUE-Tech] How do website authors maintain their sanity?

[Jed S. Baer]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 06:57:43 -0700
Jeff Cann <j.cann at isuma.org> wrote:

[ big snip ]

> The biggest problem is that vendors like Microsoft do not fully
> implement W3C specs, so some of the more useful CSS features are
> unusable if you have a wide browser audience for your site.  Did you see
> this on /. the other day?  It looks like someone is writing a CSS page
> to fix a lot of these issues:
> 
>  + http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/
> 
> Finally, I do think that if you are familiar with HTML, moving to CSS is
> bewildering and takes some time to figure out how things are working.

I completely agree with all of your points, particularly about
maintainability. The only thing is that when CSS doesn't work, you're
pretty well stuck. I'm more than happy to use CSS for the things it does
well.

CSS shouldn't be bewildering for the most basic functions. IMHO, I've
encountered sufficient violations of the principle of least surprise to
make me leary of any but the most cosmetic of the box model features (e.g.
margin, border). Unfortunately, the "try it and see" method of learning
doesn't apply, because of rendering bugs. So I'm usually left wondering
whether I really *do* understand the documentation. Also, the question of
whether I understand the documentation is moot, because in the end, it has
to work in the visitors' browsers, whether my CSS is technically correct.

The mere presence of such a project as Dean Edwards' browser fix is as
much an indictment of the sorry state of affairs as anything. But it is
impressive.

jed
-- 
http://s88369986.onlinehome.us/freedomsight/

... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier