Working with “Troubled” Browsers
Before getting into listing all of the problems that we, as CSS designers, have to deal with when it comes to browsers, it is important to take a step back and realize why we have browser bugs in the first place.
As anyone who has tried reading them can attest, the W3C specifications aren’t exactly clear in many areas and they certainly are not a roadmap to implementation for browser manufacturers. In many cases, browser developers have to interpret what they read in the specs and try to make them work while simultaneously trying to get the browser out the door on time. In other cases, decisions have been made to deviate from the specs to make life “easier” for the designer or developer (see Internet Explorer’s box model problem, later in this chapter).
We could spend countless hours discussing the problems with any one browser, but it’s really best to take a step back and realize that no browser is perfect. Making yourself aware of each browser’s inadequacies and figuring out what can be done (if anything) to overcome these problems is far more constructive. And this chapter will help you do exactly that.
Get Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
