[Wylug-discuss] a webdesign query / mini rant

Fri Jan 13 12:57:32 GMT 2006

chris writes:

> Just a few quick questions from a very tired soul:

Hi Chris -- hope you've managed to get some sleep by now!
(Incidentally, I believe there is more than one Chris in Wylug -- any
chance you could use a surname or something else to identify you when
posting to this list?  (And yes, I realize there's a degree of hypocrisy
in this request given that I'm posting this message using only a single
name.))

> How does one go about assigning the tiny icon that sits just to the
> left of the URL in a Firefox window? All the cool kids are doing it.

The simplest way is just to save an appropriately sized icon (in Windows
icon format) in a file called favicon.ico in the top-level directory of
the site.

For more control you can put a link in the <head> of HTML pages, along
the lines of:

  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/graphics/blam.png">

That allows you to have different icons on different pages, and to use
other file formats (though I've no idea how well these are supported on
IE).

> Dose MSIE have any support for style positioning by % value?

Yes.  In general IE6 can usually be made to lay things out how you want,
so long as you've done the magic dance to persuade it to switch to
trying to follow the relevant standards as best as possible (rather than
its default 'legacy-bug-compatible' mode).

If you post the particular fragment of HTML and CSS that's causing you
problems then somebody here may be able to help you.

> And now for a short rant:
> 
> I wrote my site in Firefox and Safiri, and i have only just got round
> to testing it on MSIE.

That's my prefered way of developing web stuff too -- first of all code
following the standards, and then add in work-arounds for IE.

> I was horrified to discover that MSIE STILL doesn't support .png
> images,

It does, just not those with alpha channels of any value other than
100%.

> therefore, no transparency,

Actually there is some way of getting it to do this.  It involves
something ridiculous like using an <object> element (rather than an
<img>) and taking advantage of some IE feature that allows effects to be
applied to objects, one of which is merging a png with them, including
alpha channels.  So if the base object is a plain white gif image, you
can get the output you want.  Except of course that that's IE-specific,
so you have to do some absurd hoop-jumping to only do this in IE and do
it the sensible way in other browsers.

> and that was just the tip of the iceberg.  No % positioning, and
> apparentally no <span> tag.

IE definitely supports <span>.  (Apart from anything else, it's one of
those tags that MS-Word-generated needlessly spews throughout its
pitiful attempt to generate HTML.)  Again, reduce your code down to a
small HTML fragment and associated CSS which demonstrates the problem
and post it here and I'm sure we'll be able to help.

> In closing, can anyone remember a firfox campaign which gave users
> code to implement a splash screen on there website which
> deterred/prevented MSIE users from entering the site.?

Yes, I can remember that.  But I suspect you were actually wanting more
than somebody merely remembering it, and I don't know any details of it.
I'm not sure I'm in favour of that sort of thing -- we know how
frustrating it is when encountering restrictions t'other way round, and
that's definitely not something which should be encouraged.

However having a box which only appears on pages when viewed with IE
saying something along the lines of the following would seem reasonable:

  *IE Users*  This site was designed in accordance with web standards,
  which are poorly supported in IE.  As such this site doesn't look
  great when viewed using that browser.  To see it in its full glory we
  recommend using a standards-compiant browser, such as _Firefox_,
  _Opera_, or _Safari_.

(and make the browser names be links).  In particular by having a list
of several plausible browsers you are emphasizing that the problem here
is with IE, and not inadvertently giving the impression that your site
has been designed to work only in Firefox.

Cheers.

Smylers