My hatred of

This post is aimed at all web designers and developers that insist on using the dirty hack <br clear="all"> within their website builds. Most people won’t understand my rage for <br clear="all"> because it takes a certain level of web geekness to fathom what it is and why it’s so god damn unnecessary.

<br clear="all"> is typically used by crap developers who hold no appreciation for web semantics nor accessibility. Ironically these culprits are usually the smart a**** that are the first to point out others mistakes, no matter how minor. They build websites that are both bloated, slow and unstable cross-browser. <br clear="all"> to me acts as the ultimate professional insult to those that have crafted for years, through changing technologies and user demands. <br clear="all"> is like a bird crapping on your freshly washed and polished hatchback, a minor little thing that really p***** me off when I encounter it.

Like the story ‘The Princess and the Pea’, no matter how much preparation and effort you put into something, all it takes is a stupid little pea to annoy you and reduce a potentially relaxing nights sleep to an unexpected search for the very thing that shouldn’t be there in the first place, the <br clear="all">.

Dear Website Developer,

If you need to clear a floated element, please don’t use <br clear="all">. As a last resort use a simple CSS class on the element you want clearing. In your bloated, unstructured CSS file, which more than likely will be inline, create a class:

.clear{
     clear:both;
}

and remember you can add multiple classes to an element, like:

<div class="className className clear">
I'm a clever little developer aren't I
</div>

As Borat would say, this is ‘unbelievable’!!!

<br clear="all">

<div class="className">
Hack hack hack
</div>

<br clear="all">

<div class="className">
Hack hack hack
</div>

So next time to quickly quack in <br clear=”all”>, think, you’re a dirty little bugger! One last thing, if you write <br clear="all">, it should be <br clear="all" />, but I guess you don’t care do you?