I didn't express myself well. It was an example where a style attribute may be implicit in one browser, but lead to incorrect rendering in another. In other cases it may be a hack. So I guess the advice is: be explicit.
btw: Microsoft must be the least "green" software-company ever. All the electricity spent on figuring out how to write css for IE.. :)
btw: Microsoft must be the least "green" software-company ever. All the electricity spent on figuring out how to write css for IE.. :)