Sent by Aaron Mehl on 16 December 2002 16:04
--On Monday, December 16, 2002 10:25:12 AM -0500 "Alan K. Gay"
[EMAIL-REMOVED]> wrote:
>>
>> 2) Define a strategy for addressing box model implementation variation
>> > for each site/page and implement it completely.
>>
>> > This is a bit vague for me to put into a rule. This I assume is
>> positioning within the box padding or positioning the box itself,
> float
>> absolute positioning and margins.
>> By strategy you mean??
>
> I'm not quite sure how to turn into a rule myself, but I'll elaborate.
> When you use CSS for positioning, or you use
> border-color/background-color to create visual effects, you are walking
> into the issue that there are major and minor differences in how
> browsers implement the box model (as well as differences in related
> things like border-collapse).
>
> At one end of the spectrum, by making minimal use of padding and border
> (ie setting their dimension to zero) and not relying on pixel-perfect
> alignment between block-level elements, you can usually ignore
> cross-browser box-model differences entirely.
Is this acheivable. My golden rule idea is a vanilla flavor, that works
cross browser. I am guessing that this first approach uses float and or
absoulte positioning. Does this limit the complexity of the design
template. IE can this approach permit vanilla designs with multiple colums,
nested divs etc.
===========================================================================
===
>
> At the other end, if you are using border and padding with significant
> width for visual effect, then you are going to have to deal with
> cross-browser issues in your style sheets via one of many "hacks". And
> if your alignment requirements are very critical, then these style-sheet
> accommodations can become pretty involved, and you may have to revise
> your design just to get a solution.
>From this I deduce that you feel that padding is not a postioning tool but
a visual one. you don't mention margins. I guess I get confused because you
can move a box around by changing any of the parameters. border (width
height) line-height, margin, padding, float and absolute positioning.
If what you are saying holds true some of these should be reserved for
visual presentation and others for positioning.
so knowing this difference could be a rule.
(the interaction of many things effect position, but if I remove from my
bag of tricks things that are not ment to be for positioning maybe I will
gain some consistancy???)
>==========================================================================
==
> So.... my rule (which requires the designer to have working knowledge of
> these cross-browser issues) might best be stated as "understand which
> cross-browser variations are important to your design, and implement css
> sufficient to support your design in all your target browsers and
> versions."
>==========================================================================
========
Ok good, but is there a way to make a vanilla that side steps the issue of
browser issues.
It could be the answer is no. But at least it will be possible to pin the
factors down a bit.
> I wish it was more cut and dried, but it isn't. The good news is that
> css implementation skills are not likely to be commoditized anytime
> soon.
>
Thanks for bearing with me in my quest for some clarity in the sea of css
sand.
Aaron
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AM in the AM (PM)
