Re: A "Wanna Be" CSS programmer

At 12:46 PM -0500 2/6/02, Jennifer Peterson wrote:
>Dear Esteemed CSS Programmers,
>I returned to my international school armed with two books about cascading
>style sheets. I have read them and I am ready to go.

Which books, out of curiousity?  Well, full disclosure: I am working
on my own forthcoming CSS book, and I'd like to get feedback of what
you think the strengths and weaknesses are of the existing CSS books.

>However, I am quite
>mystified by one main issue...the lack of CSS implementation by "older"
>browsers (ie, Netscape 4 and IE 5).
>It seems to me that many HTML professionals are using CSS. Can someone
>explain to me...on list or off...how you can develop style sheets of any
>sophistication knowing that your site visitors may very well be using these
>"older" browsers?

Several strategies:

(a) Use "safe" CSS -- there's a reasonably big subset that works on
    all (Netscape 4+, IE 4+) browsers that contains a good number of
    useful effects.

(b) Use "harmless" CSS -- a subset of "all CSS" and a superset of
     "safe" CSS, which may not be well supported in the older browsers,
     but the worst that happens is that some presentation effect
     doesn't happen, but the page still can be used. An example is
     font-variant: small-caps.

(c) Use tricks to prevent Netscape 4 from seeing certain rules;
    these include @include and \\ hacks.

(d) Use server-side browser sniffing to serve up the right style
    sheet for each browser.

(e) Use whatever compliant CSS you like and if someone complains,
     tell them to upgrade their browser.

I usually go with (b). The HWG's site is (b) with a little of
(c). The W3C's site uses (d). Approach (e) has been promoted by
the Web Standards Project.

--Kynn

-- 
Kynn Bartlett <kynn(at)idyllmtn.com>                 http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain            http://idyllmtn.com
Web Accessibility Expert-for-hire          http://kynn.com/resume
Next Book: Teach Yourself CSS in 24       http://cssin24hours.com

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