'another netscape requirement'

Mole

I noticed some weird goings on an a survey page, and the result seemed to be a screwed up server side script, but scrolling down, I also noticed this:

</td>
		</tr>
	</table>
	<br>
					</TD>
				</TR>

				</table><!-- dave added for netscape -->
			</TD>
		</TR>

	</TABLE>
	</table> <!-- another netscape requirement -->

I'm not quite sure on the comments? Counting them, there's 4 <table> tags and 5 </table> tags, but apparently some of them are required for netscape?

Or maybe the comment got included, but the actual netscape requirement got excluded by the server side script...

MiffTheFox

See, it's because that Netscape can't handle things like tables without closing tags. I'm telling you, Internet Explorer is the future, especially with this new-fangeled version 5.0. With IE5, nobody will ever need to design for another browser ever again.

morbiuswilters

I remember there being some goofy bug with tables and Netscape 4. Thankfully, it's been years since I've had to write for NN4 so the memory has faded until the only detail of it left is a dull, throbbing pain between my eyes.

Who is netscape?

Zemm

The one thing I remember was that Netscape required closing tags on TDs and TRs. My first year uni in 1998 we used NT4 workstations with the 16 bit Netscape 3 Gold (!). IE2 was also installed, though it wasn't useful at all! I think it was 16 bit Netscape to keep compatibility with the few labs that were still running Windows 3.1 (the introductory programming for Engineers used QBASIC). There were Linux labs for IT but they were completely separate.

EX_PLO_SHUN

The reason Netscape required tables to be closed was because it could not reflow after rendering. In order to display a table, it had to know the structure and contents of the table so it can figure out the dimensions and then render it. Without properly nested tags (or at least attempting to properly nest them), it couldn't actually determine the size of the table, and the table (and anything after it on the page) would not render.

I don't know what TRWTF is here, the Netscape rendering issues or the original page designer balking at the concept of something other than tag soup.