Ok, this is actually OFF-Topic, just a quick note: I didn't say Tedd's solution was intrinsicly bad and I think it is great that he answered so quickly to a problem somebody asked here. However, it is important to point out flaws of solutions. I expect that from anyone here, as this is the only way things can improve - as the developers of a solution we are a lot of times blissfully unaware of the follies we have committed.
> >It is a hack after all. > That's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black isn't it? Just > take a look at all the hacks that are currently used in css and the > topics, problems, and solutions presented on this list -- despite > everyone's good intentions, css is hardly hack-less. We can't ignore > the man behind the curtain. > As such, mixing a few languages together to solve problems certainly > isn't any worse. It's the old evolution thing of adapt or die, don't > you think? I wonder where/how css will end up? The problem is that we mix techniques and confuse beginners with these issues. The beauty of CSS is that it is very easy to grasp (specifity aside - that even confused Andy "Malarkey") and the more we apply, advocate and advertise hacks the harder it will be to get your head around it as a starter. The problem isn't that CSS is broken, the problem is that the implementation in browsers is (CSS3 aside - even Dave Shea admitted that on Monday at the Geekdinner in London). The other problem is that we more or less managed to get the tables and pixel perfect layouts out of a lot sites, but certainly not out of the heads of people. CSS is about embracing differences and using flexibility as a design idea. It also means believing in the agreed standards and doing the best we can with them. That does not happen much. Instead many threads here are - I have a design that is based on the fixed size column idea tables give me and now I want to do it in CSS - I have hammer and now everything looks like a nail, but hey it doesn't work (CSS for page states, CSS for tabular data, CSS replacing a backend functionality, CSS replacing HTML, CSS not supporting everything the environment I work in does - which may be visual design or backend scripting) We can use different methods to patch the holes in CSS implementations, or even extend CSS to a certain degree, but it is a very dangerous idea to do so without calling it something different. CSS has no constants, and CSS has no variables. It is NOT a programming language, the same way HTML is not a programming language. Every development in IT has the concept of beta versions (heck sometimes one might think it is the concept of web2.0), but front-end web development hasn't. All we write post and publish is normally shown as-is and the best thing since sliced bread. Naturally - we are proud of it. Alistapart.com had a great idea to label articles experimental (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/scripttriggers/) - sadly enough the new layout does not show past discussions any longer - which is a lot of times where a lot better solutions were found. Maybe we could use this here or on our blogs aswell. Advocating standards will only work if we use the different mechanisms for what they were intended. THEN we can explain that to achieve a maintenance benefit or to patch a hole in a browser we can harness other techniques - such as generating CSS by interspersing it with backend scripting. However, IF there is a way around it, we should use that way, and David's and Zoe's answers where right on the mark there. ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
