I think this issue comes from the fact the IE not all browsers treat TABLES as descendants from BODY (which of course they are). If you specify a CSS rule for BODY to change its size, you need to remember to apply the same size to TD as well. IE fixes that in compliance mode I beleive.
NCC obviously only tested in quirks mode on IE, hence the oversight. It's not so much an issue of relative or fixed sizes, but understanding how the browser applies those sizes in all cases.
I think this issue comes from the fact the IE not all browsers treat TABLES as descendants from BODY (which of course they are). If you specify a CSS rule for BODY to change its size, you need to remember to apply the same size to TD as well. IE fixes that in compliance mode I beleive.
NCC obviously only tested in quirks mode on IE, hence the oversight. It's not so much an issue of relative or fixed sizes, but understanding how the browser applies those sizes in all cases.