[thelist] CSS + Netscape 4.7 HELL

[Saila, Craig]

Anthony Baker wrote:
As for the two options you presented:
>  (1) Convince her I'm right and offer an upgrade page
>      for Netscape users
>
>  (2) Suck it up and create a mirror/Netscape 4.x version
>      of the site

1) is not realistic for the reason's Mako suggested
2) may not be feasible from an economic perspective

That leaves rudy's third option:
> split your style sheet into two -- one contains colours,
> fonts, and everything else that netscape 4.7 can handle, the
> other contains only those few declarations that make netscape
> 4.7 barf -- and then withhold the second using @import

I whole-heartedly agree with rudy on this. It is /possible/ to do a
CSS-P/XHTML site in Netscape 4.x but, in my experience, you're looking
at doubling your development time. Strip it down to the colours, sizes,
and fonts (and possibly some padding and margins) and save yourself the
agony.

While geeks like us may get why the different approach for this browser
(i.e., poor support, costly development, shrinking userbase), you may
want to mention to your client that this design is easier/cheaper to
maintain and faster to load -- focus on the tangible benefits to her and
her users.

--
Cheers,

Craig Saila
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craig at saila.com : http://www.saila.com/
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