Disputatio Formulae:Unicode

What function does the phrase "; font-family /**/:inherit" have? The template doesn't seem to work properly with that phrase, so I removed it, but Myces returned it. Look up the URL http://la.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%9D%E1%BE%B6%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%82 (the Victionarium entry on the word "νᾶνος") in Internet Explorer today and you will find both the alpha with a circumflex accent and the definite article replaced by squares. Delete the phrase above and save the template in that form, reload the page mentioned and the article will appear correctly. Is there a better method to achieve this? /Ericus

The purpose of that phrase is that the template is only to be applied to Internet Explorer (other browsers are smart enough to do font substitution for missing letters, and it is wrong to override the user's settings in that regard). "font-family /**/:inherit" is a workaround that, in a compliant browser, cancels the previous font-family statement, but the broken MSIE, not recognizing it, works with the previous font-family statement. This is the exact same solution used by en.wikipedia (in the site stylesheet, w:en:Mediawiki:Common.css, scroll down to the comment "Support for Template:IPA, Template:Unicode and Template:Polytonic."). See w:en:Template_talk:IPA#Technical details, w:en:Template talk:Unicode, etc. —Myces Tiberinus 22:38, 6 Martii 2006 (UTC)

This sounds all right in theory, but in practice, as mentioned above, it doesn't work in the Victionarium for an Internet Explorer user. In the English Wikipedia it works fine, e.g. at the URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano. I assume there must be an important difference, but I can't spot it. /Ericus

Perhaps it's in the order of the fonts being declared? They should be listed in order of most to least comprehensive, I think, as IE would just go with the first one listed that you happen to have, yes? —Myces Tiberinus 23:38, 7 Martii 2006 (UTC)

No, the fonts are in the same order here as after the Unicode heading at w:en:Mediawiki:Common.css, namely TITUS Cyberbit Basic, Code2000, Doulos SIL, Chrysanthi Unicode, Bitstream Cyberbit, Bitstream CyberBase, Bitstream Vera, Thryomanes, Gentium, GentiumAlt, Visual Geez Unicode, Lucida Grande, Arial Unicode MS, Microsoft Sans Serif, Lucida Sans Unicode. As I said it works fine here in the Victionarium without the phrase "; font-family /**/:inherit". That's why I conclude that Internet Explorer doesn't understand that it should ignore this part. As it is included at w:en:Mediawiki:Common.css there must be some other difference which makes IE ignore the phrase in Wikipedia, but not in Wiktionary. /Ericus