In order to get rid of the problems of table layout, and to
provide some of the functionality of a framed layout without
the even worse problems of frames, I have found an interesting
layout technique and applied it to the new codebase.
I've tested this layout in Lynx (text), Netscape 4.7, Mozilla,
Galeon, and Opera under Linux and IE5 and Mozilla under Windows, but
I'd like to see a really good cross-section.
It works like this: the HTML is output serially as header, article,
footer, sidebar. So in something like Lynx, or a voice browser,
you'll see them in that order, all laid out normally. In a modern
standards-compliant browser (Mozilla, Galeon, Opera), the stylesheet
puts the sidebar in a fixed position and moves the margins of the
rest of the text past it, so you'll see a fixed-position sidebar
always visible as you scroll the text. In non-compliant browsers
(IE5, NS4), it uses Javascript to move the sidebar to the right place
dynamically, which achieves roughly the same effect as the
stylesheet, but with more work.
It shouldn't break /any/ browser, because it still validates and it
doesn't depend on either the scripts or the stylesheet for content.
It's also a lot more tolerant now of things like bad table markup
inside an article; since the article is no longer laid out inside a
table, you can't screw it up.
If it does break your browser, let me know in gory detail--your OS,
your browser and version, the page you display (KQ gave me a screen
capture--that's perfect).
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