IE 5.5 Mac - float width problems + general review

[Aaron Robson]

Hi
about 1% of my clients use macs, and I've spent an inordinate amount of time
trying to get things working on them...
I've validated my html and css - the html has 5 errors (strict), all due to
asp.net. I don't believe these to be the problem (missing
type='text/javascript' and that sort of thing).

The site works fine in NS7.1 and IE6, and has done so when i used
transitional and strict doctypes.
It is currently strict.

On the mac, apparently the floated inner panels (badly named LeftPanel and
InnerRightPanel) are the full width of the parent (RightPanel), wheras in NS
and IE they are the width of their own content. I have set them as
display:inline, as I believed this would solve the issue, but it doesn't :(

If anyone could have a look in any other browsers and tell me of any issues,
I'd be very grateful - ditto as to solving the mac problem.
The site can be found at www.intrepidnoodle.com.
Thanks in advance.

Aaron Robson
Intrepid Noodle Ltd

[viza]

and then Aaron Robson said:

On the mac, apparently the floated inner panels are the full width of the
parent (RightPanel), wheras in NS and IE they are the width of their own
content.
CSS2 #9.5 Floats:
"A floated box must have an explicit width (assigned via the 'width'
property, or its intrinsic width in the case of replaced elements)."

Your div is not replaced. You must specify the width or it could be
anything. IIRC most browsers will set it to the width of the container.
I have set them as display:inline,

CSS2 #9.5.1 Positioning the float: the 'float' property:

"The 'display' [property on floated elements] is ignored, unless it has the
value 'none'."

[Aaron Robson]

"viza" <no**@example.invalid> wrote in message
news:na*****************@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...

and then Aaron Robson said:

On the mac, apparently the floated inner panels are the full width of the parent (RightPanel), wheras in NS and IE they are the width of their own
content.
CSS2 #9.5 Floats:
"A floated box must have an explicit width (assigned via the 'width'
property, or its intrinsic width in the case of replaced elements)."

Your div is not replaced. You must specify the width or it could be
anything. IIRC most browsers will set it to the width of the container.

I have set them as display:inline,

CSS2 #9.5.1 Positioning the float: the 'float' property:

"The 'display' [property on floated elements] is ignored, unless it has

the value 'none'."

Thanks for your response Viza. I think I'd read that, but hoped it didn't
really mean it! hence my futile attempt with the display:inline :)
Hmmm. Is there any solution to this if I want to have the DIVs size to the
content ?
As I see it I could set a percentage width, but as I don't know what will go
into them on any particular page, this could lead to some unfortunate
wrapping or even overflow.
Since it is working in IE5.5, IE6 and NN7.1, it seems as if one option would
be to use the \*/ hack to make the Mac read css with % widths in for those
elements.
I wonder how many users are likely to hit my site with a browser which does
it 'correctly' ? Not many I imagine.
Thoughts / solutions anyone ?

Cheers
Aaron

[Aaron Robson]

> CSS2 #9.5 Floats:

"A floated box must have an explicit width (assigned via the 'width'
property, or its intrinsic width in the case of replaced elements)."

Your div is not replaced. You must specify the width or it could be
anything. IIRC most browsers will set it to the width of the container.

I have set them as display:inline,
CSS2 #9.5.1 Positioning the float: the 'float' property:

"The 'display' [property on floated elements] is ignored, unless it has

the

value 'none'."

Thanks for your response Viza. I think I'd read that, but hoped it didn't
really mean it! hence my futile attempt with the display:inline :)
Hmmm. Is there any solution to this if I want to have the DIVs size to the
content ?
As I see it I could set a percentage width, but as I don't know what will

go into them on any particular page, this could lead to some unfortunate
wrapping or even overflow.
Since it is working in IE5.5, IE6 and NN7.1, it seems as if one option would be to use the \*/ hack to make the Mac read css with % widths in for those
elements.
I wonder how many users are likely to hit my site with a browser which does it 'correctly' ? Not many I imagine.
Thoughts / solutions anyone ?

Cheers
Aaron

Just an update... the site works with Opera 7.11 too...
How come it works with the latest versions of Netscape and Opera - I
thought they were meant to be standards compliant ?

[Kris]

In article <NT*****************@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net>,
viza <no**@example.invalid> wrote:

Since it is working in IE5.5, IE6 and NN7.1, it seems as if one option
would be to use the \*/ hack to make the Mac read css with % widths in for
those elements.
I wonder how many users are likely to hit my site with a browser which
does it 'correctly' ?

One thing you need to remeber is that if you make a site that relies on a
bug, or in this case relies on a browser happening to do what you want at
random, then you have no guarantee that future versions will behave in the
same way.
Of IE/Mac there will be none.
You need to make your site so that it works on a theoretical
'perfect css compliant' browser, because this is what browsers are moving
towards* and then work backwards towards the hacks you need to make it
work.

Your point still stands. :)

--
Kris
kr*******@xs4all.netherlands (nl)
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us" said the Mock Turtle.