IE 7 Supports More CSS Selectors, Whip-e-dee-doo-da
Today, and most likely in the near future (damn you IE 6), client-side architects remain stuck with only a handful of CSS selectors that can be used in A-grade browsers. And it should be noted that even the 7 selectors available today do not completely work (depending upon the browser) according to the specifications.
Here are the CSS selectors we have to use until IE 5.5 and IE 6 are considered to be non-modern/A-grade browsers.
- Universal selector (Ex: *)
- Type selectors (Ex: h1)
- Descendant selectors (Ex: h1 strong)
- Class selectors (Ex: .classname or h1.classname)
- ID selectors (Ex: #IDname or h1#IDname)
- The link pseudo-classes (Ex: a:link and a:visited)
- The dynamic pseudo-classes (Ex: a:active and a:hover and a:focus)
IE 7 has added support for the following selectors. Again however, these selectors based on the specifications have varying browser support/quirks.
- Child selectors (Ex: h1 > p)
- Adjacent selectors (Ex: h1 + p)
- Attribute selectors (Ex: h1[class=firstH1])
- The :first-child pseudo-class (Ex: h1:first-child bold)
- The :first-letter pseudo-class (Ex: h1:first-letter)
- The :first-line pseudo-class (Ex: h1:first-line)
Realistically this translates, to me, that of the 43 selectors available to us in CSS 3 we can only use 13 of them (with varying support) when IE 5.5 and IE 6.0 are no longer considered modern browsers. So, whip-e-dee-doo-da I wonder how many years it will be before we get to use only 13 of the 43 selectors available?
If the mouse pointer changes to a hand when you roll-over an image associated with a story the image upon clicking either links to enlarged version of the image or a website associated with the image.
Um, I think that’s supposed to be spelled whippee-dee-doo-da.
@Hugh – Sure, if you like following rules that is.
I am siding with whoopi-do.
I think it’s too important to IE support more CSS selectors, but, today, we can’t expect that most users will update their browser.
Ya know, we are the ones who make the Internet, after all. The more of us who continue to develop our code to standards, the more unlikely IE will be able and/or willing to keep up. This will take some time to happen but it will happen.
Cool! I am looking forward to implementing sites using this kind of advanced styling!
Things like the attribute bases selector, wow, that will move some formerly javascript based coding into CSS based mark-up!
I dont really think that any web developper in their right mind would already target their site to css3 at this moment ..maybe in a year or 3.
That said, that then means that IE7 supports 13 of the 19 (8 css1, 11 css2) selectors.
PS. i only see 39 selectors in that list
@Robert – I’m not sure how you are counting but most consider there to be 43. For example
I just upgraded to IE7 but am now concerned the sites I test in IE7 will not be stable in IE6…can you have both versions running?
Tim J: Yes you can
Isn’t it important that we use selectors not supported by IE 7 to force Microsoft into supporting them? Why should a regular user change their browser when every page looks exactly the same in Firefox as Internet Explorer? A site shouldn’t look bad in IE but why shouldn’t it look better in Firefox and the other modern browsers? As long as a new selector doesn’t break your design – use it!
Well, I think that in five or six years IE will be a good browser, in the meanwhile, we must educate that it is just bullshit and show some nice alternative browser that make our work better and faster.
Pelle: Most of those who design websites,myself included, generally are designing them to be read by the general public (who, some of which are internet-uneducated even to the point of not knowing that there is more than one browser available to them). While we are all incredibly frustrated by the fact that Microsoft continues to push out sub-par browsers, we are forced to design for them as well in order to get our overall message out to the masses (with it’s amazing design no less).
It is horrible but ultimately it would not be Microsoft that loses but those companies who refuse to design for every platform/browser.
First, thanks for the listing of the names of the current CSS selectors, while I’ve worked with those before, I never knew all their names.
Second, in your last paragraph, you state that we can use 13 of the 43 selectors and than ask how many years will it be before we can use 13 of the 43 selectors? I think you meant to say ”.. how many years before we can use all of the 43 selectors?”
Third, re the debate over “Whip-e-dee-doo-da”, I prefer “Big whoop”—besides, it Googles better.
tedd
@Ted – Nope, its meant as stated. Meaning that we can’t even use 13 of the 43 today, and when we can (IE7 is widely used) its still only 13 of the 43. Makes sense?
Just out of interest, how many of the css3 selectors does FF 1.5 support, and how may does FF 2.0 support? A list or link if possible.
And as I may have missed it, when was css3 moved from draft phase to its finalised form?
Just to correct a few things: IE 6 and 7 do not support :focus.
:first-line and :first-letter are already supported since IE 5.5.
Update: Apparently, IE 7 also supports selectors that use the General Sibling combinator “~” [1].
[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#selectors
Now sadly I designed my myspace site. ( Yes I recently became a myspace slut. ) I designed it using all selectors the IE 6 didnt support. However Firefox pulled it off just fine. Then I read someone there IE 7 was suppose to be complient in that realm. I went off to test it. The rendering was exactly the same as IE 6, which is very sad.
Look here in both firefox and IE * (whatever version )
myspace.com/paintedgauthier