CSS, gzip compression and IE6/7

Big fixed, or still best to avoid compression .css files?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I generally avoid external CSS for various reasons, but I am just about to mess with some small external .css files.

Generally I have most text-like files set to be GZIPped automatically on the fly if the browser has can accept the 'gzip' content encoding.

In the past gzip Content-Encoding seems to have caused various problems with IE6, causing the CSS not to be used intermittently.

Has this problem gone away with IE7? Has it been patched in recent IE6 fixes?

For the moment I've turned off dynamic compression of .css files, but I hate to have random special cases like this if I can avoid them!

Rgds

Damon

[Robin_reala]

I believe we always GZIP our CSS and I we haven’t had any problems in IE6. Can you remember exactly what issues you had?

[horseatingweeds]

Why would you ovoid external .css files?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

1) Sometimes IE6 can fail to decompress the CSS before trying to parse it, eg after cacheing the compressed CCS and then being restarted: some people reported this happening maybe 1 page display in 20. Various people all over the Net have reported sporadic problems with the gzip/.css/IE6 combo.

2) I avoid external .css because I see too many sites (eg The Register and SlashDot that I use heavily) rendered completely unusable because for some reason the CSS doesn't work. The problem seems less acute (a) recently and (b) with FF2 compared to any IE version, but it still happens enough to be seriously annoying. Not all users are on fast, reliable connections for a start. But let's not divert onto a flamewar on this, I only mentioned it to explain why I was finally being forced to confront the issue!

Rgds

Damon

[horseatingweeds]

Is there any problems with simple attaching a .css file, not compressed? I just got worried when you said you ovoid attaching css. I always attach them. I also am always on a 4 meg connection or a local server.

[DamonHD]

Hi,

Not compressing the .css files means a slower download for the first page the user fetches (and more of my server bandwidth eaten up).

I try to make the first page that the user sees on my site load as quickly and reliably as possible.

Rgds

Damon

[horseatingweeds]

Are your CSS files especially large? Do you compress other files? Images are what I have been worrying about. But my css files are only 5kb or so.

[DamonHD]

Hi,

No, at the moment my external .css file is tiny.

But it's a shame to have to process it differently to my other text-based files.

In the last year I've been able to double my visitors and page views whilst actually bringing bandwidth down a little by routinely compressing all text-based files.

That will also have improved performance significantly for most users, even those on broadband.

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

So, no particular views one way or the other on this?

Rgds

Damon