Question

Why do most developers consider the W3C box model to be better than the box model used by Internet Explorer?

It’s very frustrating developing pages that look the way you want them on Internet Explorer, but I find the W3C box model counterintuitive. For example, if margins, padding, and border were factored into the width, I could assign width values to all my columns without worrying about the number of columns, and any changes I make to their padding and margins.

With W3C’s box model I have to worry about the number of columns I have, and develop something akin to a mathematical formula to calculate the correct width values when modifying margins and padding. Changing their values would be difficult, especially for complex layouts. Consider this small frame-work I wrote:

#content {
    margin:0 auto 30px auto;
    padding:0 30px 30px 30px;
    width: 900px;
}

    #content .column {
        float: left;
        margin:0 20px 20px 20px;
    }
    #content .first {
        margin-left: 0;
    }
    #content .last {
        margin-right: 0;
    }

        .width_1-4 {
            width: 195px;
        }
        .width_1-3 {
            width: 273px;
        }
        .width_1-2 {
            width: 430px;
        }
        .width_3-4 {
            width: 645px;
        }
        .width_1-1 {
            width: 900px;
        }

The values I assigned here will falter unless there are three columns, and thus margins at 0+20+20+20+20+0. It would be difficult to modify padding and margins; my entire widths would have to be recalculated. If column width incorporated padding and margins, all I would need to do is change the width and I have my layout. I’m less criticizing the box model and more hoping to understand why it’s considered better as I’m finding it difficult to work with.

Am I doing this thing wrong? It just seems counterintuitive to use W3C’s box model.

Answer 1

One word answer – -box-sizing

You choose how you want your box model to work.