<ul> causes IE8 crash

[markmck]

Guys,

Having been an using IE8 beta for a while as part of my site testing - I test every site in the usual (FF, Safari, Chrome, IE 6, 7 and now 8) - I found to my horror that my own site (xhtml 1.0 strict and CSS 2.1 compliant) crashed IE8. After a little research I realised that it was Unordered Lists <ul> causing the problem, but to date I cannot find why.

If anyone wants to try this you can see my site at web-elegance dot co dot uk and the offending pages at /indexbak , optimisebak, and telecomsbak

In the mean time I will find another way to style the pages to get the effect I desire.

Your comments, good, bad and indifferent welcomed.

Mark

[AlexDawson]

It may be a bug due to you using a beta version of Internet Explorer, you should update your version to the final (proper) release which has been made available to the Microsoft website. Then come back and let us know if you still receive the issue and we can help you further from that point.

Note: I have just tried your website in the final release of IE8 and it is not giving me any errors whatsoever, I believe the problem you are getting is simply because you are using a buggy and outdated version of one of the pre-releases.

[markmck]

Hi Alex,

It was only when I updated to the full version I noticed. I immediately tried with a laptop that had the 8.1 beta on with the same results.

I have changed the pages with <ul> and these are saved on the site at indexbak, optimisebak and telecomsbak now.

[AlexDawson]

Hmm strange, I just tried what you added and yes it does cause IE8 to crash, I am not exactly sure why but congratulations on finding a bug which Microsoft forgot about! I will have a look and report back if I find out why it is being caused but hopefully one of the other smart people in here may spot the issue if I cannot determine its cause.

[markmck]

Hi Alex,

Thank from a sanity point of view. I have made some further progress and it is something to do with the image I am using for the bullet.

I was using a png, and changed it to gif (below), but this is still causing the same error - as you now see.

list-style-image: url(../images/0125_li.gif);

I am just going to delve into my CSS manual for a quick peek.

Mark

[logic_earth]

Well UL is not causing the bug to appear all on its own, already prove that by stripping away everything but the base HTML and UL block. Will be adding the css here shortly.

[AlexDawson]

OK I have found the issue, apparently IE8 does not like you using list-style-image within a global declaration in css (*) which is intended for all elements. To resolve your problem take the list-style-image out of the * (it should not actually be there in the first place as that attribute does not apply to all elements) and instead, put it within

ul li {
	list-style-image: url(../images/0125_li.gif);
}

PS: Doing this will apply the list-style-image to all of your lists naturally.

[logic_earth]

Well darn AlexDawson beat me to it D:

[AlexDawson]

Well darn AlexDawson beat me to it D:

I was wearing my code monkey ninja hat today, I think that gave me the edge

[markmck]

Brilliant Alex thanks,

You have just earned the right to walk around looking smug all day knowing that the world is looking up to you.

Thanks again.

Mark

[jameshopkins]

Very nice bug catch, markmck, and thanks Alex for investigating this issue
further

This is indeed a very major bug you've discovered in final-release IE8, which I've escalated by sending a report to Microsoft; I've also added it to my IE8 bug list)

[AlexDawson]

Hey jameshopkins, thanks for crediting me for investigating the bug (as listed) on your site Good call for reporting the issue to Microsoft, hopefully they will resolve the bug some when down the line in a future release or bug patch fix!

[jameshopkins]

Hey jameshopkins, thanks for crediting me for investigating the bug (as listed) on your site

I should like to point out after some additional investigation the issue only occurs when the list-style-type links to a valid image path.

I mentioned this originally in my test case, but thanks for clarifying

Also if you could please rate the bug on the Connect ticket, we can get this issue escalated even further

[AlexDawson]

Jameshopkins, yes I noticed that you had mentioned it after making the post however, I found out another interesting quirk which is not mentioned on your website or ticket.

The issue does not seem to occur if the HTML document in question is missing a doctype in the header. If the web page in question contains simply <HTML> as opposed to a full declaration of doctype, the issue does not result in a crash but a perfectly rendered page.

[jameshopkins]

The issue does not seem to occur if the HTML document in question is missing a doctype in the header. If the web page in question contains simply <HTML> as opposed to a full declaration of doctype, the issue does not result in a crash but a perfectly rendered page.

By not using a Doctype (and System Identidfier, in the case of XHTML Transitional), the page will be rendered in Quirks Mode - we are only wanting to test test cases in Standards Mode.

On a seperate note, I have tried out the test case with two machines at work (one with Add-Ons enabled, one without) and both conditions allow the page to be rendered correctly - I think I need to do some more investigating when I get back

James

[AlexDawson]

I know that not having a doctype will trigger quirks mode but I just thought I would mention that it is only in standards based mode that the issue occurs (as that gives another variable the bug is dependent on to result in the crash).