[thelist] overflow: auto/scroll

Thu Apr 18 14:16:04 CDT 2002

> From: Scott Schrantz <scotts at rci-nv.com>
[...]
> Now, in this case, what's the "containing block"? The <body> element.
> (Or, on aardvarks's page, a <div> without a set width, which will
> expand to the width of the <body>) So, setting overflow: scroll on the
> <pre> will make any content that's *outside the body* scroll. But in
> IE, the body element has been streched, so the entire <pre> is still
> inside the body. Hence, no scroll. Putting width: 98% on the <pre>
> forces it to fit in the viewport, and now the offending content is
> spilling outside the body. In Mozilla, the body and the viewport are
> one and the same, so you always get the scroll.

this is a good way to look at it, one that i hadn't quite been
seeing... yes, i could say it, but it just seemed counter-intuitive to
me while writing up the code...

ah well, thanks for the perspective...

> Now, which interpretation is "correct"? I'm staying out of that one.

well, mine... obviously...