CSS 3 column - trying to understand IE6 bug fix

Question

I am reading a CSS technique which is nicely documented at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/holygrail/

It shows how to create a fluid central column with two fixed width sidebars.

I am pretty clear on how the technique works but I am not sure which issue/bug this section of the CSS is attempting to fix (labelled IE6 fix).

/* IE6 Fix */ * html #left { left: 150px; /* RC width */ }

I know that the * html ensures that only IE browsers will read that CSS rule. What is the purpose of this correction for IE browsers ?

Answer 1

From the article

The negative margin pulls the left column too far to the left in IE6 (the full width of the browser window). We need to push it back to the right the full width of the right column—using the star-html hack to mask it from other browsers—and we’re ready to go.

IE6 has a number of quirks in rendering CSS improperly. It often needs some additional compensation to order of the document to style properly.