```yaml
---
slug: enhancing-for-bugs
published: 2015-03-14T00:00:00.000Z
description: Sometimes, instead of feature detection, you can get away with "bug detection"
changelog:
  - on: 2020-02-23
    note: This was rescued from the archives of the old [felocity.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20050507121849/http://www.felocity.org/journal). As a result, many links in this piece were left pointing to archive.org destinations.
---
```

In the days of Internet Explorer 6, it was common to lament the problems of the browser nobody wanted to support. Some of the bugs that developers have uncovered are well documented, some of them not. This falls more into the later camp. It's fix, while trivial, serves as a great reminder about how to build software that works in every browser.

Let's get the basics out of the way first. In every browser on the planet (except IE6), it is possible to create a checkbox in IE6 that is by default selected using everyday JavaScript.

```js
var cb = document.createElement("input");
cb.type = "checkbox";
cb.checked = true;
```

A simple checkbox
The above code would render the checkbox once you append the checkbox to the DOM, but no matter how one tries, the box won't actually start in the checked state. While it's technically possible to [sniff IE6 using conditional comments](http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2006/11/sandbox/) and react accordingly, trying to detect a browser based on its signature will always be a poor choice and a last resort.

Internet Explorer's documentation on `document.createElement` shows that before IE9, it was possible to render an element using the angle brackets, `<` and `>` respectively. When rendering out an entire tag with angle brackets, IE6 properly sets the "checked" property. Since standards compliant browsers don't allow angle brackets, we can start with a non-standard solution, falling back to the W3C method on failure.

```js
// IE6 requires a checkbox to be made differently
try {
  var cb = document.createElement('<input type="checkbox" checked>');
} catch (e) {
  var cb = document.createElement("input");
  cb.type = "checkbox";
  cb.checked = true;
}
```

By applying the philosophy of feature detection to something that is (by all accounts) a bug, we can keep true to our development principals in the browser.


This was rescued from the archives of the old [felocity.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20050507121849/http://www.felocity.org/journal). As a result, many links in this piece were left pointing to archive.org destinations.

Document

Sometimes, instead of feature detection, you can get away with "bug detection"

var cb = document.createElement("input");
cb.type = "checkbox";
cb.checked = true;


Fence

Link

code

// IE6 requires a checkbox to be made differently
try {
  var cb = document.createElement('<input type="checkbox" checked>');
} catch (e) {
  var cb = document.createElement("input");
  cb.type = "checkbox";
  cb.checked = true;
}


IE6

2015

Enhancing for Bugs