Re: Re: Identifying browsers

I disagree - Netscape 4 is horribly broken when it comes to CSS :

Netscape loses CSS information when you resize the window.
Netscape has coupled JavaScript and CSS, you can't have CSS without allowing JavaScript.
css.nu has a looong list of what other problems there are with CSS and Netscape 4.

Of course, the solution is to either generate special pages for Netscape 4 or to go back to complete .jpg images together with imagemaps for the navigation or creating the pages alltogether in MacroMedia Flash, if you need pixel-exact layout. Other than that, I see no way to give people using broken tools fancy layout.

Comment on Re: Re: Identifying browsers

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Re: Re: Re: Identifying browsers by Masem (Monsignor) on Mar 30, 2001 at 19:04 UTC
When you get down to it, no browser has good CSS 1 support, much less CSS 2. NS 4 as pointed out has a ton more bugs in CSS rendering as compared to IE5 or Opera. Save for the coupled JS/CSS thing, most of these bugs manifest themselves when you start using positioning features; in otherwords, I've typically found that using CSS to denote font changes, indenting, and other such features is not going to cause NS to blow up at you. But my comment was more towards why one needs to browser detect anyway. Even if you browser detect correctly, and send off a CSS file for that browser, my user CSS that might specify Monospace 40pt where you have Sans Serif 10pt is going to most likely cause your entire page to render incorrectly particularly if you are using CSS to position elements rather than thinking of the items within the stream of text. As Corion states above, if you are looking for pixel-perfect placement , it's best to drop back to graphic files or flash or PDF to do this. As Milly points out in another reply, a link near the top of the page for a non-CSS version (which simply doesn't need to send off a CSS file, as opposed to removing all CSS tags) is a very good solution that works in conjunction with having CSS pages without resorting to browser detection. If I come to a site with NS4 that had something like this, warning that "If the layout of this page is screwed up, try this version of this page", I would think this is just as good if not better than trying to guess the browser and play the same games here. And it would be much less work on the server too. Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com \|\| "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain	[reply]

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Re: Re: Re: Identifying browsers
by Masem (Monsignor) on Mar 30, 2001 at 19:04 UTC

But my comment was more towards why one needs to browser detect anyway. Even if you browser detect correctly, and send off a CSS file for that browser, *my* user CSS that might specify Monospace 40pt where you have Sans Serif 10pt is going to most likely cause your entire page to render incorrectly particularly if you are using CSS to position elements rather than thinking of the items within the stream of text. As Corion states above, if you are looking for pixel-perfect placement , it's best to drop back to graphic files or flash or PDF to do this.

As Milly points out in another reply, a link near the top of the page for a non-CSS version (which simply doesn't need to send off a CSS file, as opposed to removing all CSS tags) is a very good solution that works in conjunction with having CSS pages without resorting to browser detection. If I come to a site with NS4 that had something like this, warning that "If the layout of this page is screwed up, try this version of this page", I would think this is just as good if not better than trying to guess the browser and play the same games here. And it would be much less work on the server too.

Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain

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