joys of ie

Well after an overly extended easter break winding down from the dissertation I finally decided to get back into the joys that is the major project.. Yesterday initially seemed super productive with my question and answer section (which will function similar to yahoo answers, a kind of modified forum) being implemented and modified with seemingly no problems. I even built a functioning search engine and working tag cloud for the forum. Then I looked at it in Internet Explorer. So much for no problems. All of a sudden divs took on a nature of their own, and even though I have tried to code it standards compliant, following all the 'rules' for cross browser compatibility, it still managed to fuck up, in a painfully nasty way.

So the problem (well, a problem) that I face, along with every other web designer, is when to start hacking the css to display correctly in all browsers, (mainly IE... damn you microsoft). Do I attempt to do it as I go? or just write all the backend first and worry about it later. I'm thinking because I've come to the realisation that its gotta be finished in a few weeks that it will have to be done at the end. And no, I won't have a bitch and moan about IE cuz anything I've got to say has been said many times throughout the blogosphere. Work goes on.

Another problem that has arrised is essentially from lack of (or lazy) database planning. My website is going to incorporate a major search engine where the database of actors can be searched using a plethora of options. Because this is a main section of the site, I can't really skimp on it, so it means I've got to re structure the database to be more search friendly. Should have thought this through properly a looong time ago. oh well, such is life.