Stylesheets - XHTML and quirksmode

Author

XHTML and quirksmode

salmobytes

2007-11-16, 6:21 pm

I do a fair amount of work with java and xml, so when I decided to
learn
how to make webpages, XHTML Transitional and/or Strict seemed like the
best DOCTYPE
(It's more orderly, less chaotic, closing all tags, etc).
But the following link convinced me I have to switch back to 4.01
Strict or Transitional:
http://hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml

..........Also, when IE6 is flipped into quirksmode, css (apparently)
is handled differently.
Quirksmode, therefore, is an important css issue.

So, among other things, I gather it's important NOT to write code that
flips IE6 (or any other browser)
into any quirksmode. So this leads to my question:

Let's say you are testing with IE6. You look at a remote page, or
perhaps one of your own.
How do you know if IE6 has been flipped into quirksmode or not?

Sherman Pendley

2007-11-16, 6:21 pm

salmobytes <Sandy.Pittendrigh@XXXXXXXXXX> writes:

> I do a fair amount of work with java and xml, so when I decided to
> learn
> how to make webpages, XHTML Transitional and/or Strict seemed like the
> best DOCTYPE
> (It's more orderly, less chaotic, closing all tags, etc).
> But the following link convinced me I have to switch back to 4.01
> Strict or Transitional:
> http://hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml

Good choice. XHTML was a good idea that was effectively torpedoed by MS's
refusal to support it in IE. HTML 4.01 Strict is best for new pages, while
transitional is better for old pages you want to bring up to date without
having to completely rewrite them.

> .........Also, when IE6 is flipped into quirksmode, css (apparently)
> is handled differently.
> Quirksmode, therefore, is an important css issue.

"Important" is an understatement. Jukka has a page that lists many of the
effects:

<http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/quirks-mode.html>

In short, you should avoid quirks mode as if it's a disliked in-law and
wants to borrow money.

> So, among other things, I gather it's important NOT to write code that
> flips IE6 (or any other browser)
> into any quirksmode. So this leads to my question:
>
> Let's say you are testing with IE6. You look at a remote page, or
> perhaps one of your own.
> How do you know if IE6 has been flipped into quirksmode or not?

Here's a page with a useful breakdown of commonly-used doctypes, and what
mode is triggered by each in various browsers:

<http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/>

If you're looking at someone else's page, you could look at the doctype.
There's also bookmarklet that Jukka linked to on his page above that will
tell you which mode the page you're looking at is in:

<http://dorward.me.uk/www/bookmarklets/qors/>

sherm--

--
WV News, Blogging, and Discussion: http://wv-www.com
Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net

salmobytes

2007-11-16, 6:21 pm

On Nov 16, 10:04 am, Sherman Pendley <spamt...@dot-app.org> wrote:
> <http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/>
>
> <http://dorward.me.uk/www/bookmarklets/qors/>
>
> sherm--
>
good stuff, good links. Thank you.

Jonathan N. Little

2007-11-16, 10:15 pm

salmobytes wrote:

> Let's say you are testing with IE6. You look at a remote page, or
> perhaps one of your own.
> How do you know if IE6 has been flipped into quirksmode or not?

Type in address bar

java script:alert(document.compatMode);

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

Jukka K. Korpela

2007-11-17, 6:18 pm

Scripsit Jonathan N. Little:

>
> Type in address bar
>
> java script:alert(document.compatMode);

Apparently it displays
CSS1Compat
in "standards" mode and
BackCompat
in "quirks" mode. I guess we can guess this from the values when we've seen
then both, but as such, "CSS1Compat" sounds like "compatibility" to an
outdated "standard", i.e. rather quirky. :-)

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Jonathan N. Little

2007-11-17, 6:18 pm

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> Scripsit Jonathan N. Little:
>
>
> Apparently it displays
> CSS1Compat
> in "standards" mode and
> BackCompat
> in "quirks" mode. I guess we can guess this from the values when we've
> seen then both, but as such, "CSS1Compat" sounds like "compatibility" to
> an outdated "standard", i.e. rather quirky. :-)
>

C'mmon it Microsoft here! Where else would you use logic "Now got to the
Start button to Shutdown"!

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com