Comments on: Eric Meyer Interview

By: Stefan Mischook

Stefan Mischook — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:05:36 +0000

“Why haven’t conditional comments become standardized by the ‘Web Standards Gurus’?”

Nerd politics.

“Do you think they ever will be standardized so ‘hacks’ will go away completely?”

It does not need to be standardized. It works since only IE supports it.

By: Audioforge

Audioforge — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:23:00 +0000

Hey we need trouble makers out there shaking things up….That was a great question and very relevant.

My question is this: Why haven’t conditional comments become standardized by the ‘Web Standards Gurus’? I found nothing about it on the W3.org site.

Do you think they ever will be standardized so ‘hacks’ will go away completely?

By: Stefan Mischook

Stefan Mischook — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:54:36 +0000

Hi Adam,

I don’t believe that hacks should ever be used. Eric should have not advised people to use them either. IE has had conditional comments since version 5.5 … that makes hacks unnecessary.

I had hacks in a Wordpress theme I used and had to go back and fix things precisely because the original template designer used hacks … a big pain in the butt.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:47:14 +0000

My opinion is use hacks were you need to. It may not be the best solution but that is why we call them hacks. If it was what was meant to be done then it would be standard and nobody would have a problem. Rather than worry about people using hacks we should be worried about getting a set of web standards that browser need to be complaint with.

But either way great interview and post.

Adam

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 22:24:04 +0000

Really great interview indeed, I run a small web design blog and wish i could get great interviews like this. Conditional comments have been around for ages and I still use them today – my preferred method.

By: Stefan Mischook

Stefan Mischook — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:29:03 +0000

@LSW,

“So exactly how long have conditional comments been available? I have heard if them only the last 2 years or so.”

Answer:

Since IE5 … a long time before hacks became popular. They (web standards zealots) probably ignored IE conditional comments because they were not part of the standards. If that was indeed the case, they ignored a totally viable solution for theoretical correctness.

By: LSW

LSW — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 03:54:36 +0000

I thought comments were a recent developement. Remember Eric has written books on CSS for many years when hacks were the only choice. I have not read a recent one so not sure if he still does… but he is one of the founding fathers of CSS and if it was better supported the way they wrote it to be used it would not be an issue.

So exactly how long have conditional comments been available? I have heard if them only the last 2 years or so.