Cross browser / platform problems with CSS

[Mark Findlay]

I am running into problems trying to get a simple searchbox to display
correctly across various browsers and platforms.

Everything is fine in IE 6.0 on PC (can't we all just use IE but when
viewed on other browsers and platforms is when the problems begin.

Here is a simple page I created to illustrate the problem. I also included
screenshots to show how each other browser and platform mangles the original
intent.
http://www.speakeasy.org/~mfindlay/searchbox.htm. Everything is contained in
the htm page so you can view source on it to see the style definitions I am
using.

If anyone can offer any advice on the 2 main issues here:

1) The input box appears even though I have defined a style for it that
should make it invisible
2) On Mac Safari, the searchbox is separated from the arrow image.

I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[rf]

I am running into problems trying to get a simple searchbox to display
correctly across various browsers and platforms.

Damn. I just typed out a full and detailed reply to you and then found all
the crossposted groups, AFTER I had sent the post.

Why do you crosspost to so many disparate groups? And such obscure ones at
at that!

Well I have just deleted all the groups that are not on my server. I also
deleted my reply. Not that you would have probably found it anyway.

 

[Mark Findlay]

I'm not quite following you on this one.

People post to multiple groups all the time; do you go around to each
message and post phony replies to anyone who posts to multiple groups? You
must be very busy indeed.

Cheers back

 

[Jeff Thies]

I'm not quite following you on this one.

People post to multiple groups all the time;

Most don't. Most post to the most appropriate group. Ocasionally it is
appropriate to post to more than one group. Have you read this group?

Four diverse groups is a bit much. I would just crank it down a bit
before you get a warning on top posting also.

Jeff

 

[rf]

.... makes no sense upside down.

I'm not quite following you on this one.

People post to multiple groups all the time;

Just because "everyone" does it does not make it good. Do you chase after
lemmings?

do you go around to each
message and post phony replies to anyone who posts to multiple groups? You
must be very busy indeed.

No, I do not. I saw a post that I could answer and I did. I did not, at the
time, see the crosspost in the newsgroups bar.

My problem is that I had just spend 5 of my minutes (my minutes, if I am
busy or not) giving you a detailed reply and, on pressing send, was
confronted with crossposted groups that are not on my server. I can not send
the post because my server bounces the post.

So, I have to cut those groups out of my post. Since I don't know which of
those groups you are posting from I can only assume that you are posting
from on of the two (out of three) that I had to cut. (the odds are good, and
I have not seen your handle in alt.html before). If you lurk in one of
those two groups then why should I post to you via alt.html, except on the
offchance you find the post and recognise my annoyance?

Since you found my post you are either posting from alt.html or you are
auditing all three groups.

In any case, I don't care, you pissed me off so I chose to snip my original
reply, perhaps to your detriment. Once again, I don't care. You have annoyed
me once, I will keep an eye on you now. If you include crossposts to
proprietory newsgroups that have little or nothing to do with alt.html then
I will cheerfully ignore you. BTW I don't see many replies coming back from
those other groups

When posting pick one group and stick with it.

BTW do not top post, because it...

 

[rf]

Mark Findlay wrote:

Four diverse groups is a bit much. I would just crank it down a bit
before you get a warning on top posting also.

Too late

<grin style="tongue-position: cheek;">
Oh, BTW it is also permissible to snip away all the stuff at the bottom that
doesn't pertain to your post. You know, sort of keeps the newsgroup neat and
tidy. Makes it easier to find the bits *you* wrote. Less chaff to search
through.
</grin>

 

[Mark Parnell]

Ocasionally it is appropriate to post to more than one group.

It is also customary when crossposting to set followups.

Four diverse groups is a bit much.

Indeed. I have my newsreader set to ignore anything crossposted to more
than 3 groups.

I would just crank it down a bit
before you get a warning on top posting also.

Trimming superfluous quoting is also desirable. ;-)

 

[lime]

<grin style="tongue-position: cheek;">

This has to be the best thing I've seen on usenet ever. Very good, very good
indeed...

 

[rf]

lime wrote

This has to be the best thing I've seen on usenet ever. Very good, very good
indeed...

Thankyou sir and/or madam

It's a rarely used block level emoticon.

http://groups.google.com.au/groups?q=grin+tongue-position+cheek
Looks like I invented it in early 2002.

 

[Toby Inkster]

I am running into problems trying to get a simple searchbox to display
correctly across various browsers and platforms.

http://www.speakeasy.org/~mfindlay/searchbox.htm

Many browsers choose to disallow or limit the styling of form elements,
simply because allowing authors too much control over them tends to result
in unusable pages.

Say, for example, that I'm a Windows user with limited eyesight. I have
gone into Control Panel, double clicked on "Display", gone to the
"Appearance" tab (this is all from memory, so is probably the wrong way --
I don't use Windows on a regular basis) and chosen a high-contrast, large
print white-on-black colour scheme.

Now my form controls will tend to have a black background with pretty
big white text.
In your style sheet you have put:

input {
font-size: 11px;
color: #330000;
}

Not only will the font size be way too small for me to see what I'm
typing, but also I'll be stuck with really-dark-red text on a black
background which (even at a sane font size) will be illegible.

For that reason, many browsers tend to disallow form styling.

[x-posted, f'ups to alt.html]

 

[rf]

Many browsers choose to disallow or limit the styling of form elements,
simply because allowing authors too much control over them tends to result
in unusable pages.

Hmmm. Not entirely sure about these altruistic reasons

The real reason IMHO is that some browsers, especially older ones, use the
standard Windows Common Controls for form elements, that is: an edit control
for an input type="text" element, a dropdown combo box for a select element
and so on. I've even seen a button control used for an input type="button"
element.

<aside> The edit control above is exactly the same edit control that is
wrapped up in a fancy GUI and called "Notepad", just like Wordpad actually
is, under the hood, a standard Rich Text control </aside>

This can be verified by cranking up Spy and searching for windows. Each
input element is a separate Windows window. This also explains why they
always live in front of the canvas, regardless of z-order. They really are a
different window, just like a frame or a dialog/alert box.

Windows Common Controls, being common, have little that can be styled. That
is why they are common, so all programs that use them "look" similar, as
should be in a GUI environment.

An edit box, for example, on most versions of Windows *always* has a border,
regardless of what an author might say in an HTML page.

 

[Toby Inkster]

The real reason IMHO is that some browsers, especially older ones, use the
standard Windows Common Controls for form elements

Certainly this doesn't apply to Opera 7.x -- it draws its own widgets.

Many others however do fall back to standard widgets (and not only on
Windows!)

Windows Common Controls, being common, have little that can be styled.

Fiddling around in VB shows that to be false. You can easily control the
font family, size, italics, weight, etc, change the foreground and
background colours

 

[SpaceGirl]

rf wrote:




Certainly this doesn't apply to Opera 7.x -- it draws its own widgets.

Many others however do fall back to standard widgets (and not only on
Windows!)




Fiddling around in VB shows that to be false. You can easily control the
font family, size, italics, weight, etc, change the foreground and
background colours

And a lot more. Remember the whole of the Windows XP front end is
essentially neutered XML - practically everything can be customized
using tools like StyleXP - and these DO effect form elements within a
page unless the designer has place the "<meta
http-equiv="MSThemeCompatible" content="no" />" meta in the header.

--


x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

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