This is a problem with Netscape.
It is a problem that manifests itself with Netscape. Until shown
otherwise I believe it to be a problem with the HTML markup, not
with Netscape. Netscape obviously is not free from problems but
I have never found it to be noncompliant with respect to the HTML
standard.
FL310, I don't agree with this part:
Internet Explorer obviously checks first the screen size of your machine
and than resizes accordingly. Netscape on the other hand, as it appears,
needs the good old fashioned screen size check in the program (the HTML
source code for the page).
The standards for programming languages always have specifications
for operator precedence. This ensures that different compliant compilers
will interpret the same source code in the same way. When I compile my
code with compilers from Gnu, Borland, Microsoft, and Metrowerks I get
the same results in all matters covered by the standard. Thus, 20-10/5
will always return 18 and not 2, 1.e. 20-(10/5) and not (20-10)/5. That
is because the standard stipulates that division takes precedence over
subtraction.
On the other hand, I can easily write programs that work perfectly well
when compiled with Borland but which crash badly when built with the Gnu
compiler. That happens when I write code whose behaviour is not specified
by the ANSI/ISO standard. In those cases it is up to the compiler writers
to determine what happens. Since the standard does not tell then how to
interpret the code those writers make their own choices and they are
not the same from compiler to compiler. When unexpected results happen
the programmer has only himself to blame for not following the standard.
The tags of HTML were designed by nerds for nerds. There weren't any
web designers in the beginning. Tables were for presenting data. I
suspect that nobody imagined that tables would be used as a design
element. The HTML specification consequently has many gaps. I looked at
the W3C HTML standard and did not find any specified order of precedence
that governs the behaviour of incompatible "nowrap" and "width" tags.
Microsoft asserts that "width" takes precedence over "nowrap". But
Microsoft does not get to write the standard. Netscape is perfectly
capable of determining width size. But it allows the coder's "nowrap"
to take precedence over "width". Unless I have overlooked something it
is not wrong for them to do so. If you place width = "100%" and nowrap
in a tag and the text exceeds 100% of the screen width then what is a
browser supposed to do: follow the width specification or follow the
nowrap specification? Unless the standard tells them how to handle this,
and I don't see where it does, either choice is permitted and defensible.
Leave out the "nowrap" tag in the code and Netscape will display the
page well. Since MSIE ignores that tag one wonders what its purpose is.