marquee and Firefox

[Siddan]

Hi

sorry for this is not about css but it is here where I usually am and this is where I at least think here are the most FF veteran users

So my question is if the tag marquee is very poorly compatible with Firefox or something, especially using the attribute "Direction up".

I wouldn´t like using the javascript for this simple task but I guess I have no other alternative if it looks like this fecked up in FF.


p.s

no, where I attend to use this feature isn´t at all annoying as you think just cus I mentioned "marquee" :p

[NogDog]

The marquee tag is likely to have many compatibility problems, because it is not part of the HTML specification. I believe it was an IE "invention", and any support FF or other browsers give is at best fortuitous if you want to use it.

[BonRouge]

I just tried this and it worked in FF. <marquee direction="up">hello</marquee>
You do know that it's not valid though, yeah?

[drhowarddrfine]

Quotes from elsewhere:

For a long time, only Internet Explorer supported this element. Although Netscape/Mozilla now supports it, it is not and likely will never be in the standards, so its use is not recommended.

Siddan, I think this is the third or fourth time you've been tripped up by IE. Just read the standards from the w3c and you won't have that problem.

[Siddan]

Bon Rouge.. hehe and try to add a background to the div which wrapps the marquee... or even add a border, then you see ;)
---
aiite drhoward, then I guess I just have to use javascript then

[ray326]

Well as long as you're at it don't forget <blink>.

[Kravvitz]

You shouldn't use <marquee> for accessibility reasons.

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#q33
http://www.google.com/search?q=accessibility+marquee

If you must have scrolling text, use JavaScript and provide a method to stop the scrolling.

[Siddan]

Well as long as you're at it don't forget <blink>.

no, that is annoying. Yes I know you were being ironic there.

Just for your information I wanted to use this upwards scrolling text for a special poem that is a bit long but not too long cus in this way it would be much more.... how you say,,, poetical. It is only for this poem only which appears only one single time on one single page.

[ray326]

Not having used it I didn't know it could do anything but a horizontal, single line scroll. I'd recommend you follow Kravvitz's advice, though.

[Siddan]

I have found a pretty good javascript, so with this workaround it now works in FF

[Robert Wellock]

I good reason why it is best avoided: http://www.goer.org/HTML/examples/htmlhorror1.html

[Siddan]

well you know, there is a gray zone too, not just black and white.
Not easy being misguided. I can also make a page with badly chosen colors and combinations and tell everyone not to use colors on their site .... cus it is damn ugly and irritating for the eyes

[digitart]

First, for your poem try :
<marquee id="poem" behavior='scroll' direction='up' scrollamount='1' scrolldelay='20' onmouseover='this.stop()' onmouseout='this.start()'>
all your poem text with all webstandards compliant code you want....
</marquee>

It works like charm on Firefox, Netscape (in IE mode), IE of course and Opera (except for the stop command)
You can also shape it using CSS i.e:
#poem{
width:100px;
height:200px;
background-color:#cccccc;
}

Second: About Web Standards
Many techies complain about marquee tag based in two asumptions that may be as valid for marquee as for the javascript solutions they recommend:

1. It's an IE tag, only supported by IE. Time proved to have some utility because now it's also supported by Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape (in IE mode), and Opera (except for the stop/start commands).

2. Marquee is annoying and distracting. This has more to do with design concepts that with the effect. Speaking about annoying, I can think of many many many of flash animations and flash sites all arround that are less informative, more annoying and distracting that a news marquee. From this point of view, we should drop marquee, blink and flash at once!

Don't get me wrong, I love web standards -and hate IE in consequence-. I stress out my designers team to make web standars compliant sites for our clients as long as possible, and I really do prefer to avoid marquees, but in some circumstances, a marquee is the most accurate way to present information, from the visitor's point of view.

The problem with javascript solutions (and belive me, I have tryed most of them) is that they take a lot of time and tweaking to make them work the way you want. The worst thing about most of them is that they require that your content be placed inside the code itself, like in vars or object declarations, so if your visitors happen to have javascript disabled they won't be able to see your content at all, not to mention search engines that will ignore your javascript coded content.
BTW there is one script that really liked me because keeps marqueed texts inside the natural html flow of your page, althoug it have problems with netscape and opera:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex2/cmarquee2.htm


Anyway, what's the point of having your page beautifully validated if:
1. Search engine's robots will ignore your marqueed content
2. You'll have to integrate your content inside vars of javascripts that require to start with a body's onload command, that may crash with other more important javascripts on the page.
3. Final effect won't be visible in all web browsers after all
4. It would eat minutes, hours or days of your valuable time trying to make excesive lines of code to fit your needs or to solve point 2...

when you simply can write <marquee ... ?

[Siddan]

Hey.... that was written so superbly I could make That as a poem!,, hehe
Really, that can´t be so difficult to understand, can it? Almost everyone sees things in black and white.

I will try that example of yours, but that is pretty the standard one isn´t it?
Ithe problem was when I wrapped the marquee inside a div which the div had a background picture, it all got messed up viewin in FF