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Don't hack the CSS parsers

Peter-Paul Koch explains why CSS hacks are A Bad Idea.

I really like this article. I have been reading a lot about CSS lately, with the goal to start moving to mote xHTML/CSS-based layouts in order to keep markup more structured and focused, and everywhere I turn I find clever descriptions on how to fool browsers not parsing CSS correctly.

Especially during the first half of this year, otherwise sensible Web developers wasted enormous amounts of time in finding and improving countless CSS hacks. In my opinion these hacks are a danger to Web development, both from a psychological and from a technical point of view.

My first thought was "Great! Finally web designers are taking control, if the browser is broken, hack it!" Then I realised that all thos special tricks and gadgets rely on defects to create a visual effect. How good is that? Not at all.

Peter-Paul Koch:

Complicated CSS hacks are the modern equivalents of the frames and tables we used in wholesale lots back in the nineties. Their use serves to give the Web author a feeling of mastery, a false sense of security in the face of the countless things that can go wrong in browsers.

I agree totally. Again we are finding and devising workarounds as if we have learned nothing.

CSS hacks lull Web developers into a false sense of security and into pride at the complexity of their solutions, while the underlying theory predicts long-term disaster. Don’t fall for these aberrations. Keep CSS simple.

Koch mentions one case where hacks are ok: if they are aimed at a browser no longer in development. This feels like an important article on the subject of web design using CSS.

Digital Web Magazine - Keep It Simple: Keep CSS Simple

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