[UPHPU] IE z-index bug and CSS vs. table layout

[Wade Preston Shearer]

> There is actually an avalanche web site being developed for Colorado
> that uses Flash to produce the same effect with pop-ups.  The client
> (Bruce Tremper, director of the Utah Avalanche Center) showed me that
> page and said he liked the effect.  I liked the effect but am not
> thrilled with the idea of using Flash to get it, for several reasons,
> which may just show my ignorance of Flash.  First, the danger  
> rating for
> each of seven regions is pulled from the DB when the page is shown to
> the site visitor.  The danger rating for any region can be changed at
> any moment by an avalanche forecaster, so whatever appears must be
> chosen at the time the page loads into the browser.

Flash content can be just as dynamic and database/xml driven as HTML.


> Second, to my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong) Flash doesn't let  
> you
> leverage the browser controls to change font size etc.  That  
> ability can
> be important for some people.

That argument doesn't hold water for this page as the text on the  
page is 90% images.


> Third, since Flash is used primarily for ads, I browse the web with
> Firefox with the FlashBlock extension, which saves me from the slow
> download times and distracting motion of Flash ads.  On the few
> occasions that there is something that I actually want to watch in a
> Flash, I click on the little symbol to watch it.  I believe this
> practice is becoming popular.

I don't agree with that. The percentage of people that block flash is  
exceptionally low. Flash penetration is something like 98%. I would  
feel confident in guessing that the percentage of people that block  
flash is well below a fraction of a percentage point.


> Remember, the issue isn't making the pop-up appear and
> disappear, it's the Z index position.  IE wants to hide the pop-ups
> behind any image that has a position attribute.

I'm not sure what the problem is here. I have never encountered  
problems with the z-index showing and hiding layers.