Trash All IE Hacks 517
Let's admit it, we all hate Internet Explorer 6. About 80% of our CSS debug time are spend on IE6. We all know that IE6 is outdated and has horrible CSS rendering engine. However, most average Internet users haven't realized that yet. Why? Because we put our hard work on it and patch the bugs by various IE hacks. Well, it is time to do something...
Common IE hacks
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CSS Conditional comments
In order for our sites to work on specific verson of IE (due to improper CSS rendering), CSS conditional comments are used to apply special CSS specifications to fix it. If you haven't realized this yet, read the IE bug articles on positioniseverything.net (warning: you might hate IE more after you read them). -
PNG hack
As mentioned early, IE6 is outdated and doesn't support PNG alpha transparency. In order to display PNG (with alpha transparency) properly in IE6 or older version, we use this hack.Aleksey asked on "Simple Double Quotes":
"Hello Nick. I see some bug.
The Close button ( X ) don’t transparent. Test on IE6 and MyIE."My response:
"Yes, I know the PNGs don't display probably in IE6. But guess what, I'm not going to bother to fix it. I'm sick of hacking IE6 bugs. You should upgrade your browser anyway. Why are you still using the outdated browser?"
Why trash IE6 hacks?
I know this is difficult because about 37% (according to w3schools.com) of internet users are still using IE6. But, together we can make a different. Stop using IE hacks on your sites and let them see the ugly side of IE6. Eventually, they will find a better browser (ie. Firefox) or at least upgrade to newer version of IE.
Update:
Agree with the comments below, the statistic from W3schools does not reflect the entire internet. According to TheCounter.com, the global browser stats of IE6 users is 52% in July 2007.
Support me
If you agree with me, please support Web Designer Wall by making a vote and spreading out the word. Let's trash all IE hacks and code happily ever after...
Loading ...Conclusion
85% voted yes
15% voted no
Here are what people have said:
- "My boss will fire me if my sites don't work in IE6" because 52% of internet users are still using IE6.
- Display a message (in yellow bar), "You are using an outdated browser, please upgrade your browser" to IE6 users.
- If it is a personal project, you can ignore all the IE6 users. But for professional or commercial projects, you can't live without them.
- Avoid using any features (ie. PNG, CSS selectors) that are not supported by IE6.
I noticed something so horrible that I couldn’t beleive it…there were more users visiting my site with IE6 than IE7 the past week. What is the general internet population in retrograde or something?
I think microsoft should be held accountable and actually fix ie6. There are large number of users out there who will never upgrade to ie7 or above because they are using old machines and/or they don’t want to use the tabs and newer features. Honestly, with three versions of ie to deal with now, they just keep making my life difficult. Their product really doesn’t get better and I try to tell everyone I know to switch to foxfire, but as long as I’m doing this as a business I can’t not make the sites work. But it definitely makes me hesitate on using anything to terribly creative if I know I’m going to have to hack the project to death!
I can’t belive. I just saw that TheCounter website, and 33% still uses IE6! Only 18% Firefox. Maybe we can’t ignore IE6 users yet… :-(
I think we have to put “best view with all the other browsers…” and some link to firefox, opera etc…
The only reason I use IE is for downloading FireFox…
what a fantasy….
Well, some people have said this, and it’s true.
There are people that want to switch to something else, but are tied to IE6. We can’t just abandon those people. These two pointers will help you keep your site accessible to those 52% still using IE6, without going out of your way with hacks:
1.Don’t rely on features that IE6 doesn’t have to make your web site functional. A site that is ugly to look at, but works, is better than no support at all. Using features that IE6 doesn’t have to pretty up your site is OK if the site still works without them.
2.Have a basic version of your site. This will also help mobile users use your site.
Most office here on my location don’t give a heck to firefox or even upgrade, IE6 is the default browser on the windows xp they purchased. We can’t force them to upgrade or change their browsers, we still have to develop web apps that are compatible to IE6. It’s still our responsibility to provide accessible websites for now.
-google chrome user
mini notebook very good
çok kullanışlı mini notebooklar
mini notebook çok şık
this is the best mini notebook!
en iyi mini notebook!
çok güzel mini notebook
mini notebook çok güzel
güzel bir notebook
Atom işlemcili iyi notebook
Intel® Atom N280 1.66Ghz, 1GB, 160GB, 10,1″ Windows XP Home – Mavi güzel bir mini notebook
No, because 37% of people use it, and I’m not having a client call me up and say “THE WEBSITE IS HORRIBLE IN IE6 F*CKING FIX IT”.
Maybe we should start charging Microsoft for our time spent fixing their mistakes. Currently I am fixing a site now, taking longer then it did to style it :(. I think i have spent 24 hours this year fixing IE not only in CSS but Javascript too (javascript is even worse in IE). I just can’t understand why they can’t follow the w3c standard. So this year IE has cost me $1,440.00 and they also now have IE8 that still has more issues.