I've decided not to cater for IE6 - What tasty CSS treats can I use? [closed]

Answer 1

Still really depends which browsers you do want to target. Still plenty of things to look out for.

Here's a list of unsupported features in IE6 you can now use:

• child selector ( div > p )
• adjacent sibling selector ( h1 + p )
• general sibling selector ( h1 ~ p )
• chained class selectors ( .class1.class2 )
• attribute selector ( a[href] )
• descendant selector after :hover pseudo-class ( div:hover span )
• chained pseudo-classes ( a:first-child:hover )
• :hover on non-anchor elements
• :first-child
• "virtual dimensions" (dimensions determined by top, right, left, bottom when position: absolute )
• min-height, min-width
• max-height, max-width
• transparent border color
• position: fixed
• background-attachment: fixed works only on the root element

A really good resource you can look at is http://caniuse.com/ for viewing what is supported where.

And finally - a list of IE6 bugs that were fixed in IE7 - more info here

• basic alpha-transparent png support
• css child selector
• !important more properly works
• :first-letter support
• partial click bug
• window.XMLHttpRequest became present, instead of ActiveXObject
• abbr tag is recognized
• select z-index bug is resolved as it's become window-less

Answer 2

You can now start to use web standards...

With IE6 out of the way, you can start to use loads of really nice things. Below is a list of things specific to IE6.

New features

• Transparent PNGs (full 24 bit!)
• Use of child selectors div > p
• User of sibling selectors p + input
• min/max-width/height
• :first-line
• :first-child
• :hover (all elements)
• float: right
• position: fixed
• Attribute Selectors (input[type="text"])
• Trust z-index again

Bugs fixed in IE7:

• Peekaboo Bug
• Internet Explorer and Expanding Box Problem
• Quirky Percentages
• Line-height bug
• Border Chaos
• Disappearing List-Background bug
• Guillotine Bug
• Unscrollable Content bug
• Duplicate Characters Bug
• IE and Italics
• Doubled Float-Margin bug
• Duplicate Indent bug
• Three pixel text jog
• Creeping Text bug
• Missing First letter bug
• Phantom box bug
• 31 style sheet limit - although, you shouldn't really be affected by this, else you've got other problems!

Non-technical things:

• Save time and money
• Throw away 90% of CSS hacks

Answer 3

I've used this site to keep up with IE6 / ~IE6+ oddities / workarounds:

http://work.arounds.org/

You could review what is a work around on IE6, and pat yourself on the back that you don't have to do it anymore ;) I think thats a 'treat' in itself.. time saved!

At least now you can focus 0 time on IE6, and more time on IE7, IE8 issues...

Answer 4

Mostly the freedom is your time now that you don't have to deal with IE6 bugs but the big gain Greg didn't already mention is the extra relational selectors: >, +, and ~ (child and siblings) and not worrying about hasLayout so much.

Quirksmode will tell you what you can and can't do now.

Answer 5

Assuming you're still choosing to support IE7, that will be your new baseline.

This IE team blog post describes the improvements IE7 made over IE6: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2006/08/22/712830.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

It mostly boils down to way less bugs to worry about (many CSS bugs, PNG transparency issues).

The new CSS functionality is limited but useful:

• background-attachment: fixed
• :hover on all elements
• fixed positioning
• min/max width/height
• selector improvements (child and attribute)