Sent by francky on 21 April 2006 04:04
Design Groups wrote:
>I've just been told that the site I'm working on - the target browser is
>*IE4*. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.
>
>Would anyone here have good links or information on what happens with a pure
>CSS layout when using IE4? Is it like Netscape 4 when it comes to CSS? I
>haven't even seen one of these in years - much less have the ability to
>actually view and code to it's specifics.
>
>Any info on the relationship between IE4 and CSS would be really
>appreciated.
>
>~Shelly
>
Hi Shelly,
Is it for a PC-museum, - or do they live in the Wayback Machine? ;-)
"History of Internet Explorer
[...]
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were also introduced with version 3 of
Internet Explorer.
[...]
*Version 4, released in October 1997, was shipped with Windows 98* and
was modified to integrate more closely with Microsoft Windows. It
included an option to enable "Active Desktop" which displayed World Wide
Web content on the desktop itself and was updated automatically as the
content changed. The user could select other pages for use as Active
Desktops as well. "Active Channel" technology was also introduced to
automatically obtain information updates from websites. The technology
was based on an XML standard known as Channel Definition Format (CDF),
which predated the currently used web syndication formats like RSS. This
version was designed to work on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT,
and could be downloaded from the Internet, free of charge. It supported
Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Outlook Express 4.0 also came integrated into the
browser and replaced the aging Microsoft Internet Mail & News product
that was released with previous versions.
*In September 1998, Microsoft released version 5* of Internet Explorer.
Bi-directional text, ruby text and direct XML/XSL support were included
in this release, along with *enhanced support for CSS Level 1 and 2*.
The actual release of Internet Explorer 5 happened in three stages.
Firstly, a Developer Preview was released in June 1998 (5.0B1), and then
a Public Preview was released in November 1998 (5.0B2). Then in March
1999 the final release was released (5.0). In September it was released
with Windows 98. Version 5.0 was the last one to be released for Windows
3.1x or Windows NT 3.x.
*Internet Explorer 5.5* was later released for Windows Me in July 2000,
and *included many bug fixes and security patches*.
*Version 6* was released with Windows XP in October 25, 2001. It mainly
*focused on privacy and security features*, as they had become customer
priorities. Microsoft implemented tools that support P3P, a technology
under development by the W3C."
Thefreedictionary
<http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/History+of+Internet+Explorer>.
= = =
Short conclusions by francky:
So IE4 was in the early days of using css by Microsoft (as we know what
they are making of it nowadays, we can imagine what it has been earlier...).
IE4 was launced almost 10 years ago, and within a year IE4 was replaced
by #5! Also IE4 must be dangerous, as it is very vulnerable: all
security patches of the last 9 years are not in it!
In the big world the use of IE4 is neglectable, as already replied by
Cem Meric.
Unless "the target browser is *IE4*." and it is only used in an intranet
without connection to the www, it should be appropriate to make a
special almost css-less *internal* website or variant.
How many of these IE4 pc's do they have? Hundreds?
Even then it could be less effort (time, money!) to run along them with
a memory stick in the hand, and fast installing IE6, then to try to
develop a prehistoric backward compatibility. - Someday the'll have to
upgrade anyway!
= = =
"In Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 the most properties of CSS1 and a part
of CSS2 are supported. There are still some serious errors. So the style
is not inherited in some properties of a table, and the properties width
and height are wrong inplemented."
COLOR
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 t/m 5.5
- INPUT element: poor support.
- No support for the IMG element.
- support for the HR element, whereas this is wrong.
- Abusively not herited in an included table.
LETTER-SPACING
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 t/m 5.5
- When a relative length unit is used, then abusively the computed
value is not given to a descendant element, but the value is computed
again. In case the descendant element has a different value for the
font-size, the extra spece between the leters is changing.
- This property is not supported for the elements SELECT and OPTION.
- And again not given through to an included table.
..... and so on, and so on ....
Translated from the Dutch "Manual HTML and CSS", the Handleidinghtml
<http://www.handleidinghtml.nl/index.html>.
= = =
That should be translated completely for you ... :'(
I don't know if the conclusion can be made that the css-support in for
instance IE5.0 must be the same as in IE4 then. - Perhaps somebody knows?
But isn't there a possibility to persuade your client? Starting with a
polite question if the IE4 was a typo? - If they say "Yes": no problem.
- If they say "No, why do you ask that?" then they have positioned
themselves as audience, you smile as first response, and you are in the
position to explain. ;-)
I'm sorry I can't give more hopefull hints.
francky
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