[Typo3-dev] Idea: Browser drivers

[dan frost]

Dear all,

I am sick of differences between browsers. I seems like most of a 
web-developer's time is spent coping with this and that problem and not 
actually getting anything done.

I have an idea: Browser drivers.

In the old days, printers only worked with certain computers. After that 
, they invented printer drivers so the layer of abstraction copes with 
the differences.

[Content for printer]-->[Printer driver]-->[Printer]

Now, what about:
[Content for browser]-->[Browser driver]-->[Browser]
??

I can imagine a library of elements, like links, boxes, paragraphs, 
headings, etc... And a "meta styling" which tells the element how to 
style itself. This styling could be in CSS, which can be parsed when 
required to allow for certain browsers.

As an example, I want div inside a table to be full hight. This works on 
in Mozilla, but not in IE.

<snip>
<table...><tr>
   <td><div...></div></td>
</tr></table>
</snip>

(Btw: i don't care about how this is done - that's the point - i don't 
want to fix it every time...!!!!)

Instead of making any of this, we use TypoScript (for example) like this:

example = FULL_HEIGHT_BOX
example {
   height = 100%
   //....
}

The object "FULL HEIGHT BOX" finds out which browser is viewing the page 
and makes some html and css which will work for that browser.

---this is for those who want to see how it will be used---

To use this on a page, we might build the page using TypoScript (and, 
ok, ObTS). Or, TemplVoila etc could have a dropdown of available "page 
elements".

What do you think?
dan