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IE8 Has Problems with CSS
by David Williams - April 9, 2009
While not exclusive to Microsoft's IE8 -
CSS is still posing a problem to
browsers and in many cases is not being
rendered properly.
While not exclusive to IE8
the latest browser from Microsoft is
struggling with CSS according to many
developers. It didn't take long after
the BETA version of the browser was
launched for developers to begin
complaining about the way IE8 renders
CSS dependent components of web pages.
Developers use CSS (Cascading Style
Sheets) that define how different
elements, such as headers, images, and
links, appear. These style sheets can
then be applied to any Web page on the
site - thereby reducing the amount of
time spent formatting each page in html.
In Microsoft's defense; the problems are
the result of several factors...
-
Not all web design / web development
software is created equally.
-
W3C
Compliance Standards are insanely
complicated.
-
Not all browsers are created
equally.
This may sound over simplified but it is
actually very concerning.
Suppose you've been designing web pages
for over 10 years as I have. You decide
that you want to find html editing
software (1) that is; W3C Standards
Compliant (2) for each facet of a web
page's design and Cross Browser
Compatible (3) for the way the code is
rendered.
Good Luck!
Every Body Wants to Rule the World -
enough already!
Additionally, as each new version of web
design software and the browsers
themselves compete for the top notch in
their respective fields - too much time
is spent getting a user friendly product
on the shelves and compliance and
compatibility goes out the window.
Microsoft held the browser market with
their IE products for a very long time
without significant competition and long
before the W3C was even dreamed of. For
this reason many designers and
developers played within the boundaries
of the IE browser and web pages looked
the way the were intended to look.
As the competition grew with the biggest
new players being Mozilla Firefox and
Apple Safari; designers suddenly found
themselves racing to develop coding the
would work in each type of browser -
even though the browsers themselves do
not render the same piece of code the
same way. And, if that isn't enough of a
mind twister for designers & developers
here's another ironic little kick in the
pants... those
designers who found themselves
developing strictly for IE7 - who
thought they'd be safe... The pages are
not displaying properly in IE8.
The result:
 |
Because
their is no agreement as to the
proper way to design & develop among
software developers
|
|
|
Because the
W3C is so darned complicated
|
|
|
Because
Browser developers can't agree
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Web Designers and Developers have to
waste a lot of time testing the pages
they create on different browsers to
ensure they look the same once rendered
online.
As for me, I hope for the day when I can
charge a fair price for my gifts and
skills that is billed for the time
actually spent using those gifts and
skills AND
without the need to do additional
calculations for the time I had to spend
satisfying software engineers who, by
the way, are not paying customers.
All the best,
Dave Williams
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