Michael Wilson wrote:
Al Sparber wrote:
Conditional comments only validate in the sense that the validator
doesn't recognise them as anything other than comments and hence
ignores the content. So, your page will validate against automated
checking, but technically you are using invalid code
That's a real stretch :-) How about the typical parsing bugs that
CSS
geeks tend to use - are those better because they eek through "da
Validator" even though they leverage programming bugs in browsers?
Howdy,
I don't disagree with you often, but I do in this case. I don't see
his view as a stretch at all; I think he is bang on. Conditional
comments, which I do prefer to the more often used hacks, are not
part of any standard, which makes them invalid markup by nature.
There is no way to argue that point validation or otherwise.
Hi Michael,
From a purely technical perspective, I stand corrected (I think).
However, comments are just that - comments. That Microsoft chose to
provide a means for targeting specific versions of its browser, is
merely a feature which can be used for myriad puproses, one of which
is to deliver curative or even proprietary CSS. My delivering of a
proprietary expression with this feature can be construed as counter
to the mission of those who advocate a rigid adherence to standards -
but I'm not rigid. My goal is to deliver the best web pages I can and
if it's a question of allowing IE to fail in whole, or in part, for
the greater good of absolute standards conformance, then my position
is that a working web page is more important than a valid one. But we
are splitting hairs to the extent that someone with less than a
perfect understanding of both filter hacks and conditional comments
could come away thinking that conditional comments are unclean. Be
that as it may, conditional comments and even proprietary expressions
are good things to have in one's arsenal. Your example of a global IE
version vector simply describes a poor approach to deployment, just as
many filter hack implementations could cause problems, so too could a
mis-application of conditional comments. We teach people to use
specific vectors to ensure forward compatibility - which is, in
conclusion, impossible with an exclusive reliance on filter hacks.
Regards,
Al Sparber
PVII
http://www.projectseven.com
"Designing with CSS is sometimes like barreling down a crumbling
mountain road at 90 miles per hour secure in the knowledge that
repairs are scheduled for next Tuesday".
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