Can IE Conditional Comments have a negative impact on page speed?

Debates between "CSS hacks" and "Conditional Comments" have become a regular occurrence for me lately, so I wanted to hear the thoughts of the Stack Overflow community on this topic.

<!--[if IE]>
 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="ie-specific.css" /> 
<![endif]-->

One common argument against using IE Conditional Comments is that it adds extra HTTP requests, potentially slowing down page load times. However, I haven't found any concrete data either supporting or refuting this claim.

Apart from the discussion about managing multiple stylesheets versus one stylesheet (which is worth considering in its own right), has anyone conducted tests to determine the extent of slowdown caused by using Conditional Comments? Or could you direct me to any existing research on this topic?

htmlcssinternet-explorerconditional-comments

Answer №1

It's not exactly about conditional comments, but more like conditional compilation.

When viewed in an IE browser, your page will include:

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="ie-specific.css" />

(with a slight bit of extra processing to evaluate the comment condition).

A non-IE browser will simply see a comment there.

The only potential performance impact is that IE browsers need to evaluate the conditional comment condition (which should be minimal), and then include another CSS file. Other browsers just see the generic file and ignore the comment completely.

So, the question arises - what are the advantages and disadvantages of serving IE a (let's say) 5Kb standards-compliant CSS file followed by a (let's say) 2Kb "hacks" file, while everyone else gets the 5Kb file only; versus serving everyone a single 7Kb file with less reliable CSS in it? Depending on factors such as network speed, file size, overall resource usage on the page, etc., this may or may not have a noticeable impact on performance in the case of IE (although it will certainly be faster for non-IE user agents).

As with any performance-related query, you'll need to analyze your code in your specific environment to determine the actual impact. However, as a general rule, I would anticipate a negligible impact for IE, a slight performance improvement for all other browsers, along with the satisfaction of being able to write "proper" CSS in your main file and address IE separately.

Similar questions

If you have not found the answer to your question or you are interested in this topic, then look at other similar questions below or use the search

The relative positioning is currently being obstructed

Having some trouble using position:relative to shift my logo to the left of my webpage. Oddly, moving it 20px seems to have no effect, but shifting it by 300px downwards causes it to vanish completely. Here's a snippet of my current code: .container ...

cssflexbox

Images in gallery slider are excessively large

Hello, this is my very first post on stackoverflow. Please forgive any atypical elements in this post. I have a Django Website with a gallery slider, but I am facing an issue where the images appear way too big. You can view them here: I have dedicated n ...

pythonhtmlcssdjango

Align the font-awesome icon in the middle of the input box vertically

Is there a way to vertically center the font-awesome icon inside an input box using Bootstrap without setting margins, padding values, or adjusting the height of the input? .inset-0 { top: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; left: 0; } .inset-y-0 { top: ...

cssbootstrap-4

What is the best way to retrieve the initial cell from a row that the user is currently hovering over?

Is there a way to extract the first cell from a row when a user hovers over it and then clicks a specific key combination? (considering using jQuery) I have a table set up similarly where placing the mouse over a tr and pressing ctrl+c will copy the ID t ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlcssmouseevent

Basic media query does not affect div resizing or font changes in Chrome or Internet Explorer

I am facing an issue with a simple media query that is not working as expected in Chrome or IE, but strangely it works fine in FF. I have tried various formulations of the media query without success. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Below is ...

htmlcss

HTML does not support the use of certain symbols

Currently, I am in the process of designing a homepage for my school project. However, I have run into an issue. The content that I want to be displayed on my homepage is as follows: "Daudzspēlētāju tiešsaites lomu spēle (Massively Multiplayer Online ...

htmlcss

Retrieve the content outside of the quotation marks in an HTML document through web scraping

I need help extracting specific information from a web page using Python. The data I want is not within quotation marks, as shown below: nummber = page_soup.findAll("span", {"id": "referenznummer"}) nummber # result [<span ...

htmlseleniumweb-scrapingbeautifulsoup

Executing Selenium test cases based on HTML tag is a key aspect of automated testing

I need to run my selenium test scenarios based on the value of an HTML tag, for example: <meta name="survey name" content="ABC Car"> The content represents different event types, with a total of 4 possible event types. ...

htmlseleniumselenium-webdriver

How can I retrieve the reference number of an item by clicking a button within a list item in an unordered

Presented here is a collection of data points and a button nested within an ul <ul> <li class="mix" category-1="" data-value="600.35" style="display:block;"> <figure> <figcaption> <h3> ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlcss

Is it possible to generate a table without any grid lines present?

Currently, I am in the process of designing a table that will function as a popup when a link is clicked within my imported SQL table. An example of this table is included with this message for reference. After conducting thorough research, I attempted to ...

htmlcssbootstrap-4bootstrap-modal

I require the CheckBox to be repositioned slightly lower

https://i.sstatic.net/xIi8m.png I'm trying to center align the checkbox between the Input and Button elements. I attempted using the "align-center" class in the "form-check" div, but it didn't work as expected. Could someone please provide me wi ...

htmlbootstrap-5

Tips for modifying the class of a span inline element using a javascript function

Looking for assistance in creating a password text box with an eye icon that toggles visibility. When the user clicks on the eye icon, it should change to a crossed-out eye icon and switch the input type to text. <div class="input-group show-hide-passw ...

javascriptcssbootstrap-4

Is there a way to eliminate browser-saved password suggestions using Material UI textfields?

"Is there a way to prevent browser suggestions in a Textfield within a form tag so that users must manually type their password without autocomplete options?" "I attempted to use the 'autocomplete="off"' attribute <T ...

cssreactjsbrowsermaterial-ui

Using JavaScript to Show Variables When Clicked

I have been working on populating multiple divs with data stored in variables that change when an image is clicked. Here's a snippet of the code within my tag:</p> <pre><code>function displayName(name){ document.getElementById( ...

javascripthtmlonclick

Guide to accessing the updated content of a webpage

the entire document: <!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta charset='utf-8'/> <title>DATA</title> <link href='img/fav.png' rel='icon'> <link href='index.css' rel='sty ...

jqueryhtml

The offset values of $(element) keep increasing indefinitely when they are updated repeatedly

After researching how to utilize JavaScript drag functionality to move elements, the goal is to dynamically adjust the cursor position within a square when dragged. In an attempt to simplify the process and avoid storing x and y offsets as separate variabl ...

javascripthtmljquerycss

Tips for maintaining focus on an editable div using jQuery

Is there a way to prevent an editable div from becoming unfocused when clicking on a formatting bar created using jQuery? I've been trying to implement this feature but can't seem to figure it out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many th ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlcontenteditable

What is the process for transforming conditional classes from clxs to cva format?

Looking for a way to convert the code snippet below into cva format... {items.map((item, index) => { const isActive = item.key === SOMETHING; return ( <div key={index} className={clsx( ...

cssreactjsnext.jstailwind-css

Incorporating OTP verification into the registration process

I'm struggling with incorporating the "send OTP" feature into my registration form. I received an API from an SMS provider, but I'm unsure how to integrate it into my form. After verifying the OTP, I need the user's data to be stored in my d ...

phphtmlone-time-password

Extracting values from an *ngFor loop in Angular 8 - Here's how to do

Currently, I am utilizing *ngFor to display some data. I have a requirement to extract a specific value from *ngFor and display it in, for instance, my heading. However, when I attempted to use {{ project }}, it consistently returned undefined. Despite hav ...

htmlangulartypescript