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The new SE2.0 sites do not display correctly when using iPhone.

SO, MSO, SU & SF all look fine when using my iPhone but programmers.stackexchange.com does not.

I've attached some screen shots for your information.


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This bug only occurs when you are browsing over 3G network - if you browse connected to WiFi then it works fine.

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looks to me like your safari just didn't load the CSS at all –  balpha Sep 15 '10 at 18:23
I don't see what the problem is. I personally appreciate the classic "Web 1.0" look they're going for here. Have you tried it on Netscape 4? –  user27414 Sep 15 '10 at 19:33
Hey, I didn't knew today was CSS Naked Day! –  Yi Jiang Sep 16 '10 at 9:32

4 Answers 4

up vote 2 down vote accepted

programmers.se on iPod

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Not so veiled brag imo ;) –  Peter Ajtai Sep 15 '10 at 18:35
@Peter What do you mean, "brag"? The iPod was forced upon me (Jeff mumbled something about "the chat needs to be tested in mobile Safari, too"). I didn't even want it :) –  balpha Sep 15 '10 at 18:41
Do you know I tried this about 5 times to make sure and it didn't work. Just tried it now and it works. Typical! –  Barry Sep 15 '10 at 18:41
The CSS works fine for me, but a more mobile-friendly interface (like a read/write version of stackmobile.com) would also be nice ! –  Suresh Sep 16 '10 at 3:49
@balpha - I've gone to programmers.stackexchange again today and the CSS hasn't loaded again. I've twsted it a few times and it loads fine if you connect over WiFi but not over 3G. –  Barry Sep 17 '10 at 14:56
@barry I turned off wifi on my iphone and the page loads; still no repro –  Jeff Atwood Sep 23 '10 at 2:30
@Jeff - thanks. Its a bit strange but nothing can be done if you cant reproduce. Cheers –  Barry Sep 23 '10 at 6:33
I have the same problem only over cellular connection. –  Jonathan. Nov 3 '10 at 8:32
Holy smokes, they actually have the question "How did pizza and pop become the staple food for programmers" on that crazy site... –  ЯegDwight Nov 3 '10 at 14:55
@Jeff Atwood, (does the @ thing work if you just type the first name?) if you've just turned off wifi and switched to data, then it's probably loading the CSS from cache, you should delete your cache to reproduce this. –  Jonathan. Nov 3 '10 at 22:42

The problem is the O2 network, everything is compressed before it gets sent to the phone (finding this out annoys me quite a bit, but explains why I seemingly used hardly any data)

On anything else/Wifi connection the CSs is linked to, but when it goes through the O2 compression, it takes the CSS and embeds it directly into the page and then sends the modifed page to the iphone. Rather than the iphone downloading the CSS and then the page (or it might be the page then CSS, but that's irrelevant).

While it does this, there's either something wrong with the compression/combining, or more likely a problem with the CSS file (it's more likely because it only happens with this CSS file) and a weird dot character is added before the CSS @import which imports the sketchy theme.

Personally I can't see a clear fix for this, other than trying to swap the @import and logo style in http://sstatic.net/physics/all.css?v=3a9a10b238f0 and seeing if that fixes it, but that file for each site would also have to have the swap. But i'm sure know you have much more talented people than me on your team who could fix it properly.

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The fix us relatively simple so not being rude why hasn't it been done? –  Jonathan. Nov 8 '10 at 15:53

Using my iPhone 4, I ...

  1. I cleared Safari cache via Settings, Safari
  2. I disabled Wi-Fi in Settings
  3. I loaded http://programmers.stackexchange.com

Works fine:

iPhone 4 Safari screenshot

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What iOS version do you have? –  Jonathan. Nov 4 '10 at 8:13
The only other thing is that both me and the OP are on O2-K is it maybe something to do with the server moving? –  Jonathan. Nov 4 '10 at 23:27
@jonathan the server got 2,800 miles closer to you (I assume you are in the UK?) –  Jeff Atwood Nov 5 '10 at 1:40
Well I tried accessing physics site through a uk proxy and it still didn't have CSS. And then tried a US proxy it still didn't have the CSS. This points more towards the Safari version/iOS version(seeing as it affects all iPhone browsers based on mobile safari/all of them except opera mini) so what version is your iPhone on? –  Jonathan. Nov 5 '10 at 8:40
@jonathan no idea, whatever the current iTunes is –  Jeff Atwood Nov 5 '10 at 8:50
@jeff The current iTunes is 10, however the current iOS is 4.1, looking at your screenshot you have at least 4.0.1 can you look in settings in about? . I tried the site on an iPhone 3G over 3G on the Orange network and it displayed with CSS however it was only running iOS 3. So if someone with a iPhone with iOS 4.1 and is on orange could try it then we'll know if the problem is software related or network related. –  Jonathan. Nov 5 '10 at 15:57
@jonathan my iphone 4 says version 4.1 (8B117) so I think you're back to "something is wrong with your network that we can't reproduce" –  Jeff Atwood Nov 5 '10 at 21:35
Yes it's highly likely the network, however it has to be a combination of the network and the sketchy sites, because this happens on no other website. So whats the difference between how the CSS is added on the sketchy site, and how it's added on a normal site? –  Jonathan. Nov 5 '10 at 21:51

Maybe the iOS version and the device affects it?

Non-jailbroken iOS 4.1 on an iPhone 4:

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Sorry about the image size I didn't know how to reduce it here –  Jonathan. Nov 4 '10 at 8:12

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