In web development and programming, what IS a "hack" to begin with?
>From the print world I can cite examples of things done by designers in >InDesign, say, where they didn't know how to handle an exception to their >design, so they slapped a white box over it to hide the unwanted bits and >called it good. To me, that is a hack. And it's a pretty heinous one that really does lead to more tinkering and fixing down the road. but as I'm reading responses here, it's clear that float, clear and clearfix are in the spec, and so..intended to used, correct? When we encounter the collapsing margins problem, is the use of a border or of padding instead of margin a hack to the problem? Or, is it a using of available tools to correct an unwanted outcome? there's nothing computationally wrong with slapping a white box over something you want to cover up..inDesign won't explode. The file will print or rip to PDF. It is unprofessional to do so because it fails to rectify an issue and leaves a mess for somebody else to clean up. For the guilty designer, it belies a lack of skill and tendency toward cutting corners out of laziness. At my stage of web dev skill, I couldn't apply those last sentences to the use of floats, clear and clearfix.. rather, they seem to be a regular practice..perhaps a best practice. J ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [[email protected]] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
