SuzyUK - 7:59 pm on Jul 12, 2009 (gmt 0)

This isn't just an IE problem. Breaking out of recognised coventions isn't the answer here

It is an IE only problem, no other browser is "not recognising" advanced selectors whether they support them or not, and it not breaking out, it's breaking back into, regressing to their previous support which will just happen to aid the transition should they ever get around to any CSS3 support. I don't care about the specs to letter, they have always always been open to browser interpretation.. this is just a plea from a real world user to help them :)

I don't know how the JS workaround works as I've never liked the idea, but I'd suggest it incorporates the same selector parsing rules as specified by the W3C, so I don't see how this can be a solution.

You might never have liked them, but without them CSS wouldn't have been free to get this far, it's thanks in no small part to those Dean Edward scripts that we were able to force IE's turnaround. (as well as many others, zeldman, meyer, WASP, Molly.. way too many to mention) It's noble to think we do not need scripts anymore, I too wish that were true.. but just because IE have caught up with CSS2.1 doesn't mean we have to stop helping progression now! and without using them you run the risk of way falling behind given how a lot of people are being introduced to CSS (with advanced CSS capabilities "built in") via javascript or "easy" to use JS Libraries

The scripts don't always use W3C standards, at least not in the CSS1, 2, 3 sense, when it comes to selector parsing "rules" but like forward thinking browsers they pave the way and give us the opportunity to try and use more advanced CSS. That's exactly why they are the solution.

It's been known for an absolute age that early adoption and usage of future CSS is the key to proving a selector, or property's worth and aids in the writing or even rewriting of a specification. How could we use them consistently x-browser without these scripts? - It should not ever be the other way around, else we will get stuck in the 'sheep' mentality or the can't think, won't think, of all possibilities,(i.e. non-real world) scenario we might have been in before if it weren't for forward thinking browsers like Opera and then FF. Opera first and then FF, took the lead in CSS (with or without their browser specific extensions, before they got specified too ;)).