[whatwg] The new content model for <details> breaks rendering in MSIE5-7

[Dean Edwards]

On 14/10/2009 04:41, Ian Hickson wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Sep 2009, Dean Edwards wrote:
>>
>> It's going to take a while for IE7 to go away. In the meantime it
>> becomes an education issue -- "You can start using HTML5 except
>> <details>  which will look OK in some browsers but completely break
>> others."
>
> ...and except for<canvas>  which will be slow or not work in IE for the
> forseeable future, and the drag and drop model's "draggable" attribute
> which will only work in new browsers, or the new controls which will look
> like text fields in legacy UAs, or... how is<details>  different?

The other things you mentioned don't work but don't break anything. 
Using <details> can potentially break entire pages.

>
>> Can't we just invent some new elements? We've already created 20 new
>> ones. Two more won't hurt. :)
>
> We have more than a dozen elements whose names would be appropriate here.
> Inventing entirely new elements to do the same thing again just to work
> around a very short-term problem is just silly.

I don't think it is silly to prevent severe rendering problems in 30% of 
installed browsers.

> As far as I can see the options are as follows:
>
>   1. Drop support for<details>  and<figure>  for now, revisit it later.
>
>   2. Use<legend>, and don't expect to be able to use it in any browsers
>      sanely for a few years.
>
>   3. Use<dt>/<dd>, and don't expect to be able to use it in old versions
>      of IE without rather complicated and elaborate hacks for a few years.
>
>   4. Invent a new element with a weird name (since all the good names are
>      taken already), and don't expect to be able to use it in IE without
>      hacks for a few years.
>
> I am not convinced of the wisdom of #4. I prefer #2 long term, but I see
> the argument for #3.
>

If we go with #3, I can always add a "Best viewed with Firefox" badge to 
my web sites. That will solve the problem.

-dean