Internet Explorer Reflowing

Theoretically IE should reflow boxes that have a height specified, but are too short. I'm finding though that this doesn't seem to work sometimes, so for testing this page can be loaded with a doctype and also without. (Thereby changing the standards compliance.)

DOCTYPE is currently ommited.

<div style="width: 25%" />
<div style="width: 25%; padding: 1em 10% 1em 10%" />
This column is floated to the left. Its height is relatively small…
This is the center column. The content though is in another div:

This is the actual content. The containing divs on this page,

  • .body
  • .centercol

have a height of 0. In IE, this should cause them to reflow around the elements that they contain. The other elements,

  • .leftcol
  • .content
  • .heightmatch
  • .rightcol

have a height of 100%. This should cause them to fill to the height of their containing block,

This column is absolutely positioned and the margin-right of its preceding sibling, centercol, is such so as to allow it to be visible.