Hover state fails to render on hyperlinks that are children of objects with CSS AlphaImageLoader Filter applied

The subject might be a bit confusing out of context, so let me explain
a bit more. Let us say that, on an HTML page, there is a DIV that has
an AlphaImageLoader CSS style filter applied. This DIV contains a
hyperlink (A). This link will NOT display the Hover state onmouseover
as it normally does, while links outside of the DIV change state as
expected.

My question is, of course, is this behavior "by design" or is it a bug?
Here's some simple code to illustrate the problem:

<STYLE>
#myDiv { width:200px; filter:
progidXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader
(src="http://digitolle.net/images/blue.png", sizingMethod='scale');
}
A { color: orange; text-decoration: none;}
A:Hover { color: red; text-decoration: underline;}
</STYLE>
<A href="http://groups.google.com">1. Google Groups</A><br>
<DIV ID="myDIV">
<A href="http://groups.google.com">2. Google Groups</A><br>
</DIV>

Note that Link #1 will display as expected (orange with no underline
switching to red with an underline onmouseover) while #2 will not (it
stays orange with no underline even onmouseover.)

I did not test other scenarios extensively, but other filters I tested,
such as Gradient, do not cause this problem. Obviously, as these are
Microsoft-specific Filters, this only applies to IE browsers. Other
browsers will ignore the filter completely and render links normally.

My original question was also posted to
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.program ming.css. I posted
to both groups in hopes that someone from either group might have any
ideas.

Shadow Lynx wrote:

My original question was also posted to
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.program ming.css. I posted
to both groups in hopes that someone from either group might have any
ideas.

This is a very old though never oficially admited bug in IE.
AlphaImageLoader crashes links behavior if background-image is not of
one of certain sizes. Like 4x2 works, but 4x3 doesn't (!@#$% ?!?!?!).

Make your image 10px width and 2px height (the biggest size I've found)
and your links will come back to life.

And don't ask me why... it's all kind of woodoo found over experiments.

"Never officially admitted" bugs are my favorite. Are you saying that
the link itself needs a background or the object that has the
AlphaImageLoader needs a background? Either way, it kind of defeats
the purpose of using the filter, unless a clear gif image would work.
Should the background repeat, be centered, etc.?

Shadow Lynx wrote:

"Never officially admitted" bugs are my favorite. Are you saying that
the link itself needs a background or the object that has the
AlphaImageLoader needs a background? Either way, it kind of defeats
the purpose of using the filter, unless a clear gif image would work.
Should the background repeat, be centered, etc.?

MSDN says that AlphaImageLoader places image *between* foreground and
background, but it also seems that IE has troubles with z-index for it
- this is the possible reason why links die. I'm not a design profi,
and as developer I hate opacity in any shall perform form as a king's
level headache source :-)

When I still have to use it (because some clients are extasy about it),
I simply use one div with image, and one transparent div with content
atop of it (but not nested!). Maybe not politically correct, but brings
some more sense into picture. But this is for real photos. For gradient
fills (like seems in your case) I let anyone to go to hell by his own
road: Opera / FF are getting trans-png, IE is getting gradient fill
filter and alpha filter. This way everyone is happy in his own way
including customers (only W3C CSS validator gets upset, but it's not me
who sets the rules for this world :-)