Working together for standards The Web Standards Project


To Hack Or Not To Hack?

By Ian Lloyd | November 13th, 2003 | Filed in CSS

Skip to comment form

Now that is a question. Specifically, I’m referring to the use of CSS hacks, tricks that take advantage of known browser bugs to do such
things as hiding troublesome CSS from specific browsers but not for others. Some markup purists believe them to be as evil as mal-formed XML or invalid HTML, that they are to be avoided at all costs because it’s only a metter of time before a new browser comes out that doesn’t behave as you’d expect and consequently renders your CSS-hacked site in a less than desirable way.

However, in the strive for total purity of CSS, in order to stick only to those properties that are known to work consistently in all browsers, we’d all be left with dull-looking, carbon-copy sites that might have some nicely styled text and background colors, but little in the way of innovative layout. At least that’s my opinion. And so laying my cards on the table, I thought I should mention that fellow WaSP Mark Pilgrim has a bunch of new CSS Hacks for Safari 1.1 (which is currently only available if you upgrade to OS X 10.3, but that’s another matter) for you to try out.

Handle with care.

Return to top

Post a Reply

Comments are closed.


All of the entries posted in WaSP Buzz express the opinions of their individual authors. They do not necessarily reflect the plans or positions of the Web Standards Project as a group.

This site is valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS | Get Buzz via RSS or Atom | Colophon | Legal