The mid pass filter for Internet Explorer
Tantek Çelik has published an example of what he terms a mid pass filter for use with Internet Explorer 5.x.
In his own words:
"...the Mid Pass Filter is a filter which passes external style sheets to version 5.x Internet Explorer for Windows browsers, but not to earlier/older browsers, nor to newer / more modern browsers."
This is, of course, a more elaborate but not necessarily more elegant way of implementing the changes required for IE5 horrendously broken box model which traditionally involves the use of one of Tantek's original workarounds - the original box model hack.
Personally, going to the extreme of creating an entirely new stylesheet for one browser may be a relatively clean way of doing things, but it's certainly much more tiresome from a developers' point of view. The most common issue with IE5's faulty CSS support is its' warped view of the box model in relation to its padding and width attributes which can be cheerfully overridden with with the original hack above or one of its derivatives.
In fact, my own current methodology is to create content and style that works in what we know to be standards compliant browsers - for example, those using the Gecko or Konqueror renderers - as a basis for my work. Once that is more or less in good working order, I can then go back and check the layout in IE5.x and add in any hacks as required.
Nevertheless, it's always good to see innovation in this field.