style assignment

Hi,

I started a discussion with Sue Jordan about CSS vs FONT tags but have
come to an inpasse.  We were looking at the specificity and how that
might resolve which style applies.  I said (using IE3 under Win95):

> I think it seems that the <FONT has specifity less than 1.  Take this
> HTML:
 
> <STYLE TYPE="text/css"><!--
> EM {color: red}
> P EM {color: pink}-->
> </STYLE>
> </head>
> <body>
> <EM><FONT COLOR="GREEN">  This is an EM outside of the P.</font></EM>
> 
> The EM text renders red, but take the style rule for EM out and it
> renders green.

and Sue said:

> On Netscape4x and IE4x, the text is green, so this is an IE3 bug.
>  
> I really think it is an implementation problem, rather than a
> specification problem (which would interest the list).

So how should the combination be handled?  I would have thought that my
orriginal assumption applied where <FONT and other presentational markup
have a specifity less than 1 so that any CSS style would override.  If
this was the case then pages can be delivered which for those with CSS
browsers will render 'beautifully' and for those without CSS browsers
will render adequately.  Was any specification made about this
behaviour?  I'd be interested in knowing.

Regards,

Brooke
==============================================
http://www.butterworths.com.au/profile/people/brooke/bw.htm
+61 412 024 742                                       +61 2 9422 2223
            Butterworths Electronic Publishing Developer

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Sue Jordan [SMTP:sjacct@worldnet.att.net]
> Sent:	Friday, May 15, 1998 10:30 AM
> To:	Smith, Brooke
> Subject:	Re: style assignment
> 
> Hi, Brooke.
> > 
> > I think it seems that the <FONT has specifity less than 1.  Take
> this
> > HTML:
>  
> > <STYLE TYPE="text/css"><!--
> > EM {color: red}
> > P EM {color: pink}-->
> > </STYLE>
> > </head>
> > <body>
> > <EM><FONT COLOR="GREEN">  This is an EM outside of the
> P.</font></EM>
> > 
> > The EM text renders red, but take the style rule for EM out and it
> > renders green.
> 
> On Netscape4x and IE4x, the text is green, so this is an IE3 bug.
>  
> > Do you think I should take this to the list?  Perhaps you could
> start if
> > you think so.
> 
> I really think it is an implementation problem, rather than a
> specification problem (which would interest the list). Since IE fixed
> it in a subsequent version, there is no need to file a bug report. I
> looked at out 'bugs' page, which stated that IE3 didn't recognize
> colour names as well as 3 or 6 digit RGB, but I tested RGB with
> exactly the same results. 
> 
> Sorry I couldn't be of more help. :-(
> 
> Sue

Received on Thursday, 14 May 1998 20:55:44 UTC