Geoff Pack wrote:
Gunlaug Sørtun wrote:
So, old hacks like the 'star html' hack for IE6 (and older
versions) is now "perfectly valid" IMO, while hacks relying on bugs
that have survived into IE7, are extremely unsafe.
'extremely unsafe'? I'd say they are safe until Microsoft releases
another IE version. With their track record, that could be *years*.
Sounds like a reasonable time frame. I seem to remember a suggested time
frame of three years (after the first IE7 beta) before IE8 (or whatever
it's going to be called/numbered) will be released.
Given the choice between littering my html (thousands of pages) with
conditional comments, or adding couple of hacks to a single CSS file,
I'll take the hacks, thank you very much.
I don't recommend 'conditional comments', so, you're most welcome.
There are some weak spots in your argumentation, as you seem to only
make a division between 'conditional comments' and 'other hacks'.
To me a 'conditional comment' is a "constructed hack", and I see no
reason to litter anything with it, unless there's no other option.
However, those 'conditional comments' won't target any other versions
than they are set up, so they are pretty safe in themselves.
It's when it comes to _what_ we use a particular hack for that it
becomes a bit more diverse. It is always unsafe to use one bug to fix
another - unless both bugs are brought under control in _all_ the latest
browser-versions. 'Conditional comments' can be even worse unless one
adds one for each IE-version/upgrade as they are released, as all
targeted bugs can be fixed in a way that makes "the CC-injected fix"
break the newly "fixed" browser. New browser-versions that are
patched-up versions of old ones - like IE7 - are really unpredictable in
this respect, so at least it's a good thing that the 'star html' hack
won't affect IE7 - unless one wants it to.
I am not "hooked on purity", and couldn't care less about _how many_ (if
any) hacks and/or workarounds there are in stylesheets - as long as they
are really needed in order to make things work. All I'm interested in is
to minimize the chance for such hacks to backfire in future
browser-versions.
I want hacks, _all_ hacks, to break (stop working) in future
browser-versions - preferably along with the bugs they are supposed to
fix, so I can use those very hacks to fix bugs and weaknesses in older
versions as long as those older versions are around in significant numbers.
So, I don't stop using hacks when they stop working in the latest
browser-version. Instead, that is when I really start using them.
The 'multiple-class-selectors' bug/hack is still not safe to use, IMO.
regards
Georg
--
http://www.gunlaug.no
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