Caution: This post is 85% rant and 10% information.
I hate floats. The float property is the single most annoying property of CSS. It is very fickle and often has unexpected results. The purpose of a float is to align some element left or right. In the case of an image inside of a text body, it does its job well. In all other cases, it can be very strange in how it does it. Sometimes, other elements are overlaid underneath or over the floated element. Other times, the float simply moves the element to an entirely different place on the page than where you want it.
Despite all their faults, I and every other web designer use floats in all our work. Let’s face it: you often need stuff aligned to the right and left or kept inline with other content. They are especially of use when you want to create a semantic unordered list for navigation. I just wish they would work across all browsers as you want them too. So, instead of trying to squash competitors and expand your market, just make your engine interpret CSS correctly. The rest will float follow.
Wondering where the other 5% from my warning went? The other 5% was simply the need for something to post about since things were getting dull around here since I’m back from Chicago.
This is one of the main reasons I gave up on a custom css blog with my own design.
I think there is a definite ill will towards the float property in the web design community. They certainly are a hassle to deal with in whatever project you may be doing. Floats and lack of time are the reasons I still haven’t finished my current design.