CSS Curiosities of the Past
This article explores the history of CSS hacks used by developers to force specific rendering behaviors in older browsers like Internet Explorer. It highlights how technical limitations and browser inconsistencies led to the creation of 'star hacks' and other non-standard coding practices.
Why it matters
It serves as a historical record of web development evolution and the creative workarounds required before modern standardization.
The ebbs and flows of the web have gotten us to where we stand today. We simply wouldn’t have the web we do without the journey it has taken us to get here. However, some of the steps it has taken to get here have been interesting to say the least.
CSS is how we style things on the web, but since its inception it has been made, on occasion, to wear a few more hats. It has taken on odd roles and picked up behaviours it probably ought not to have. Such is life.
As I’ve detailed odd and context-specific HTML , this is a look at CSS largely outside the specifications. Browser-specific hacks, technology-scoped syntax, and engine-exclusive snippets forged from questionable circumstances, corporate complications, and esoteric implementations.
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