Tech and thoughts
Browsers
Internet Explorer problem with nested menus over picture
Jul 11th
Couple of days ago I found a rendering problem in Internet Explorer when testing a nested vertical submenu. Click on the picture below and you will see that when you hover the vertical submenus you cannot click on the lower items. The submenu disappears when you scroll over the little spaces between the list items. On Firefox and Chrome you’ll not see this problem.
Internet Explorer bugs are not that rare but this shows in IE8 and the new IE9, and I couldn’t find a fix on the internet.
Here you can see the demo for the hover bug in IE (IE9 inclusive) . The bug is not showing when I remove the test image which the menu overlays.
I tried some tweaks at the margin and padding, z-index and zoom with no result. If this is a known bug or you know other fix than that the one posted below please let me know.
My solution
The solution I found was to put a background to the hover state of the nested menu (#menu ul ul:hover) . I used an 1 by 1 transparent gif (the old days spacer) as a background.
Here is the fixed version using a background with transparent gif. It solves the problem in IE9 and down to IE7.
The bug and the solution seems to remain valid even for the IE10 as I can test it in the preview.
And, if you know some place that rewards this kind of descoveries for IE please point me to it.
Html comments bug on Firefox
Mar 4th
I discovered a bug in Firefox for the html comments. The html comments are broken by a double hyphen “–“.
On the bugzilla it was argued that is not a bug and the implementation is according to the standards http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/intro/sgmltut.html#h-3.2.4 .
The problem is that most web developers are probably not aware of this standard and this could lead to some unexpected results.
In the current version of Firefox (3.6.14) a “–” will close the comment and all that is after will be rendered normally.
In other browsers this will not happen and in the future version Firefox 4 also this will not be a problem, but the standard remains valid.
In Firefox 4 the double hyphen is still interpreted but the comment is closed at the next “>”.
A good practice is to not use html comments for user input expecting that will not show in browser.
If you do need to do that, be aware that functions as php’s htmlentities does not convert double hyphens.
Apparently WordPress knows about this so I can’t show you an example.
Probleme de securitate cu Internet Explorer
Dec 17th
Ieri au fost descoperite noi probleme grave de securitate la Internet Explorer, probleme care afecteaza toate versiunile. Sunt genul de probleme care pot fi exploatate pentru a fura parole si chiar pentru a prelua controlul asupra computerului vizat. Deja vulnerabilitatea a fost exploatata pentru a prelua parole din domeniul jocurilor online. Mai multe detalii aici si aici .
Problema inca nu a fost rezolvata cu un update. In orice caz cel mai bun sfat este sa folositi alte browsere: Firefox, Chrome, Opera . Si pentru ca problemele cu Explorer tind sa devina eterne poate ar fi bine ca schimbarea sa fie definitiva.
Eu inteleg ca atunci cand ai cea mai mare cota de piata miza este mai mare pentru cei care fac rautati. Totusi, odata cu cota vin si banii necesari pentru a dezvolta produse de calitate.
La Microsoft pur si simplu nu se intampla nimic, este un mort viu. Se implinesc aproape 10 ani de cand nu au mai scos nimic relevant. Se ocupa numai cu preluari dubioase, cum de fapt au mai facut si la inceputurile existentei lor. Nu sunt dintre talibanii care sprijina cu orice pret numai produse open-source, dar cred ca lumea ar trebui sa pretinda mai mult de la un produs pe care da un ban fata de unul free.