Re: CSS and Netscape

While this is all true in the unvarnished sense, I'm finding that 
Netscape 4 is a useful target for what I would call "base-line" output.

In other words, it can be a good target for emulating text-only, 
accessible pages. This view of the content gives designers the 
opportunity to optimize the so called document order of the content to 
be most accessible and usable by people who must/will use text-only or 
screen-reader technology. Examples might be, placing banner graphics and 
menu bars at the bottom of the document so that the text-only reader 
encounters the content immediately and doesn't have to sift through 
unnecessary material; a skip link can be inserted at the top or an 
access key combination used to jump directly to menu options.

At the same time, the content is formatted such that no linking or 
navigating functionality is lost to Netscape 4.x users. In other words, 
the pages look like pages looked in 1989, at the beginning of it all. 
Sometimes this is not necessarily a bad thing.

On the technical level this is accomplished by "hiding" the CSS styling 
mechanism from Netscape 4. Modern browsers, on the other hand, will see 
the same base-line document but will organize the visual, cosmetically 
enhanced version according to the rules in the style-sheet.

If this approach is a non-starter for your people, then I'd say you have 
a very difficult and, more importantly, very expensive project on your 
hands because virtually everything will have to be done twice, the Bv4 
(BeforeVersion4) and the Av6 (Version 6 and beyond.)

            ...edN

Thor Larholm wrote:
> Short and simple:
> If you want Netscape 4.X support, you do not want standards.
> 
> The Hacks'R'Us department is somewhere else.
> 
> I apologize if that sounds crude, but welcome to the real world. Either you
> want standards (with a small degree of customizations) or you do not want
> standards and you can keep on using TABLE/FONT/IMG-spacer-based layouts.
> 
> Give up Netscape 4 or give up standards.
> 
> 
> Thor Larholm
> <URL: http://www.jibbering.com/faq/> FAQ for comp.lang.javascript
> <URL: http://jscript.dk/unpatched/> Unpatched IE vulnerabilities
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Mike.Steckel@SEMATECH.Org>
> To: <public-evangelist@w3.org>; <list@webdesign-L.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 7:18 PM
> Subject: CSS and Netscape
> 
> 
> 
>>We are in the process of redesigning a multiple company extranet and have
>>learned that a huge number of our users have Netscape 4.X as their
> 
> browser.
> 
>>Consequently, some of our team is reluctant to design using standards (the
> 
> main
> 
>>concern is using CSS) since it will mess up the design we have already
> 
> created.
> 
>>The concerns include CSS becoming overhead and that keeping track of how
> 
> the
> 
>>various workarounds for Netscape 4.x work and don't work, along with the
>>inheritance issues, will take a huge amount of time. I would love to know
> 
> what
> 
>>some of our options are, but don't have the technical expertise to make a
> 
> strong
> 
>>case. Any advice?
>>
>>
> 
> 
>

Received on Friday, 30 August 2002 08:44:38 UTC