PHP, Zend Framework and Other Crazy Stuff
Archive for February 16, 2006
IE + CSS = Frustration
Feb 16th
You make a site – write up the XHTML, add a basic CSS layout, and test. Firefox OK, Konqueror OK, Opera OK, Epiphany OK, lynx (non-CSS) OK. Then you make the mistake of testing it on IE6 – definitely not OK. 
I won’t rant or rage. I’ll just point out I spent as much time fiddling with the devsite‘s CSS file to make it work under IE than I did writing the thing in its original working valid form. (Well, almost valid. Small border issue with Firefox). It’s irritating to say the least. I don’t like too much web design to start with, once I get past the basic layout I founder on the ultimate challenge. Picking matching colours! 
Anyway for what it’s worth to the millions of IE6 users out there I’ve fixed most of the original IE problems. Thanks to matthijs on the DevNetwork forums lt;gt;for his suggestions on CSS fixes for IE, and pointer to the small tweak of adding a br / tag within all DIVs with a top-border containing left/right floats. Avoided a lot of hair pulling with that…
Now to proof read and maybe extend. A few tweaks, a news posting function, and the site can be dropped onto the base directory.
Moving right along…
Feb 16th
Upgraded the project’s bug tracker on http://bugs.quantum-star.com to Mantis Bug Tracker 1.0.0. With the beta releases now finished I have enabled file attachments and image views which should up the quality of information reported (well, it takes a while for such to sink into the user base and get used creatively).
Yesterday also saw the release of Quantum Star SE: Generation 0.80 Gamma. This follows the marathon run of bug fixing by Ikoda and Hades (some 65 reported bugs, about 55 resolved). It’s also contains a critical fix for the MySQL crashing bug (nasty infinite loop issue). I’m not directly involved in the project but its good to see QS2 still kicking in its new guise. Its still imperfect (being SE based) but it’s better than having an unstable year-old RC version users are seemingly obsessed with using.
I need to do a little work on the development website this weekend. There have been no further comments or suggestions, though I will proof read, fix the two IE bugs left unresolved, and maybe play around with a less sterile style or two. It should offer something actually useful other a redirect to the forums. Sometimes the basic information is all a user is really looking for…
Meanwhile the QS Evolved project forges on. I got tied up last weekend and had to delay the test release but hopefully I’ll make it this weekend. There only a few changes to make, but finding the hour or two needed to make them is difficult. Not impossible, but all the activity over migrating from SUSE, overtime at work, and focusing on more project support project has sapped all the time in late January/February I could have committed to QSE.
Not enough hours in the day…
