Anchor (<a>) dimensions with only inline-block spans inside - layout

Question

Could someone explain me what's going on with this small piece of HTML ?
http://jsbin.com/akome5
On most of current browsers (FF4, Chrome10, IE9, IE8, Opera 11), the layout of the element looks like this :
Meh?! I don't understand why ?!
Why aren't the height and width as big as the visible box (orange+red spaces) ?
Adding a "display:inline-block;" to the element doesn't seems to really fix it.
How can I fix it ?
Thx!!

Answer 1

Setting a width and height on an A tag

Answer 2

Try adding the following styles.
a.button {
display: block;
float: left;
overflow: auto;
}
a.button span {
display: block;
float: left;
}

Answer 3

I'd propose a different approach involving no spans
html:
<a class="button2" href="#">Text Text Text</a>
css:
/* Button 2 */
.button2 {
background-color:red;
border:solid 10px orange;
border-top:0;
border-bottom:0;
display:inline-block;
color:#fff;
font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
font-size:11px;
font-weight:bold;
line-height:30px;
text-decoration:none;
padding:0 3px;
}
old (top) new (bottom)
http://jsfiddle.net/pxfunc/vr7gJ/

Answer 4

For information I manage to do it without float:left, here is the whole CSS :
a.button{
display: inline-block; /* <- added */
text-decoration: none;
}
a.button span{
display: inline-block;
font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
font-weight: bold;
height: 30px;
line-height: 30px; /* <- added */
text-decoration: none;
}
a.button .left, a.button .right{
background-color: orange;
width: 10px;
}
a.button .text{
background-color: red;
color: white;
}
The line-height instruction was the key.