Handling IE6 CSS Idea

[mcm_ham]

I'm a big fan of jquery and I'm finally discovering how nice modern css selectors are to work with for the first time. Therefore a project I would like to see (although don't have the time for myself) is using jquery to process the css on IE6's behalf and style the elements directly for the browser to render.

View Example

[BenoitRen]

We already have IE conditional comments to handle this kind of case.

[jscher2000]

I'm a big fan of jquery and discovering how nice modern css selectors are to work with for the first time. Therefore a project I would like to see (although don't have the time for myself) is using jquery to process the css on IE6's behalf and style the elements directly for the browser to render.

Is there someone with enough free time to build an entirely new way to handle CSS in IE6? If so, this might not be the place she or he is hanging out...

[kindofabuzz]

http://www.ie6nomore.com/

[mcm_ham]

Sounds like an example would help people understand what I mean, so I have created a quick example and added a link to it in my first post. In searching on how to access the css stylesheet I came across someone else with the same idea:
http://lovepeacenukes.com/jquery/ie6cssfix/

We already have IE conditional comments to handle this kind of case.

Correct you can achieve workarounds for most things. My post was more about how much more readable, easier to maintain and quicker modern css is to work with. But if you have to spend the time getting it to work with IE6 then it's easier to maintain one set of css for all browsers and only use conditional comments for IE only css or to degrade the look nicely.

Is there someone with enough free time to build an entirely new way to handle CSS in IE6? If so, this might not be the place she or he is hanging out...

Point taken.

http://www.ie6nomore.com/

Sadly I know many who use IE6 and they are people whom just the thought of installing software on their own terrifies them (hence why Microsoft created OneClick). And also it took them a while to learn IE6 and because IE7's interface is just too different they would probably require written down instructions with screen shots on how to do things until they learn.

[jscher2000]

In searching on how to access the css stylesheet I came across someone else with the same idea:
http://lovepeacenukes.com/jquery/ie6cssfix/

Adding anything:hover support to IE6 has been a longstanding problem. The old solution uses a single-purpose .htc file (see Whatever:hover), which is yet another thing for the browser to download. But I don't know which approach would have the best performance overall.

[Pim]

Sadly I know many who use IE6 and they are people whom just the thought of installing software on their own terrifies them (...)

Sadly I know many programmers who make websites and they are people whom just the thought of programming for IE6 compatibility terrifies them.

Seriously now, don't you think that spending time on finding a way of making the upgrade from IE6 to, well, anything else, even IE7, easier for people that are scared of doing that, is a much better investment than spending time on something that makes websites more IE6-compatible?

[mcm_ham]

Pim, not for us in the company I work for. A number of sites we've developed are shopping sites and so a bit of effort goes into making the shopping process as easy as possible like not forcing people to register because that translates into increased sales. So telling people they need to upgrade to get the best experience is yet another barrier.

[BenoitRen]

Given that most IE6 users are using corporate computers, do they really need to shop?

[Franadora]

except that they do. Especially at lunch. But online shopping is a huge drain on productivity.

Unless you work for a company like mine that blocks many web sites.

On the other hand, more and more B2B shopping is getting online. so YES, they DO need to shop....

[jscher2000]

Given that most IE6 users are using corporate computers, do they really need to shop?

My IT department joked (?!) that they know I won't let them take the email server down on Thanksgiving because I need to get all the emails telling me about the big "Black Friday" sales.

[mcm_ham]

Someone else's attempt at this:
http://skulljackpot.com/2009/04/19/super-css-selector-support-with-jquery/

[tenzochris]

The SuperSelectors plugin will handle all modern CSS selectors (even in IE6), and also includes support for :hover selectors.

The only real limitation is that (at least for now), it will require you to have duplicate rules in your stylesheet.

Feedback / patches both welcome.

[Prowebdesign]

My opinnion is that we simply dump Microsoft with its IE (all versions) and get friends with Mozilla or Opera

[tenzochris]

Update: I incorporated some of the approaches from mcm_ham's quick pass above, and have extended SuperSelectors to automatically generate the required CSS.

This means you can write rules like

Code: Select all

div.example > div input[type="text"] {background: #f0f;}

and have it just work - even in IE6.

Code's at http://github.com/chrispatterson/jquery-super-selectors