I've tested it in Opera 5, IE 5.0 and NS 4.73 and all of them can handle the markup, but some of the colours currently rely on CSS (they can be put in the HTML instead). [and, from further down in your post:] I've already mentioned colouring with CSS vs HTML. As far as I can determine, it would not be hard to put the colours of the new markup entirely in CSS, entirely in HTML or both (or neither). For the moment, the mixed approach reflects the mixed approach of the pages in general.Here's one vote for putting it in the HTML or HTML and CSS: I usually browse with CSS off. Yes, I know that's partly because of Netscape's bug-by-design coupling CSS to JavaScript, and it's mainly JavaScript I want off... But, as you say yourself, "doing graphic design with HTML is a bit of a gamble and it's not really designed for it"... So it might well be I'll keep CSS disabled in future versions of Netscape or other browsers, too. (Yes, I know CSS is "designed for graphic design" -- but I'm of the opinion that that isn't what the Web is all about!)
Some specific issues: if you're using Netscape 4, you will not see the three coloured stripes to the right of the IWETHEY graphic because Netscape won't render a table cell at all if there's nothing to show. Opera and IE do, though with differing widths and IE draws them too narrow. Unfortunately, putting "content" (e.g. a non-breaking space) in there makes the stripes much too wide for what I was trying to achieve. I can probably get the effect better with CSS, but I haven't tried that yet.Hmm... Not even if you specify a tiny little (e.g, four-point) font for the empty table? That won't affect me, of course, since I've set my browser to use my preferred font, no matter what the "Web designers" of the world think I should be seeing... And I must say I'm glad I did -- how ever slick your screen-shots look with their sans-serif font, to me good old boring Times New Roman (at 14 pt) still feels a lot more legible.
The little icons are all fairly rough; I had wanted to put the LPRD in the appropriate shape, but I wanted to see the whole idea before I spent hours figuring out how to do that right. So they are just solid colour. Also, the icons currently form part of the link, which creates a visible extension of the link underline before the link text. :-/ Taking the icon out of the link would remove that visual annoyance and it would make the HTML simpler, but then the icon isn't part of the link anymore.There are several ways of looking at that:
- Well, that's what the link underline is for, to serve as a visual reminder, so it's just good that it's clearly visible.
- I won't have that problem, since I've set my preferences not to underline links.
- Who cares what the silly little pictures look like -- the question is, WTF are they good for in the first place?!?
- If we do care what they look like, the question occurs whether CD/VCR controls are really the best metaphor to use here... What's the equivalent of "Eject", really? :-)
OK, I think there was more stuff I thought about, but forgot... But never mind; these were the main points, and if something more occurs to me, I'll get back to you.