Posted by Spartanicus on 12/29/05 11:23

Len Philpot <len@philpot.org> wrote:

>No code written yet, but I'm trying to figure out how to replace the
>functionality of a two-frame (nav/content) layout with CSS. I've heard
>the objections to frames and although I've never personally had any
>problems with them, I don't dismiss the validity of the arguments
>against them. However, I like the idea of a unchanging, non-scrolling
>nav bar to one side of the page, with the content free to do it's thing
>on the other side (personal preference).

For a www site your personal preferences should be irrelevant, it should
be aimed at users.

>Except it doesn't work in IE, which apparently doesn't
>recognize 'fixed'. 'absolute', 'static', etc., etc., don't give the
>desired results. Both parts scroll together, either side by side, or one
>renders ahead of the other.

IE6 doesn't support position:fixed, JS hacks exist to emulate similar
functionality, but they are cumbersome to use (high CPU usage when
scrolling), and it's jerky.

>Also, even if I get this to work as desired, how do I populate 'nav' on
>multiple pages from a single source, without using SSI (is it possible
>with <object>)?

No. HTML embedded with an object element opens a new viewport inside an
existing document in which a complete HTML document should be loaded,
not a code fragment. Since it's an independent viewport, for example
clicking a link in that viewport will open inside that viewport, not the
parent viewport.

>The reason I say without SSI is that this is just a
>hobby page and my ISP doesn't provide any SSI (nor Perl, JS, php, etc.)
>for the defacto ("free") web hosting with standard accounts.

Then your options are:

a) Use a preprocessor
b) Use an editor with a good block S&R
c) Build your site locally from a database that generates static files

--
Spartanicus

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