IE7 and Web Standards

[Roy Schestowitz]

Paul Thurrott:

"Wilson's (IE Lead Program Manager) post is disappointing because Microsoft
doesn't plan to fully support the latest CSS standard in IE 7.0..."

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/...7208.html?Ad=1

Roy

[Roy Schestowitz]

Erik Funkenbusch wrote:

On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 03:20:39 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:

Paul Thurrott:

"Wilson's (IE Lead Program Manager) post is disappointing because
Microsoft doesn't plan to fully support the latest CSS standard in IE
7.0..."

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/...7208.html?Ad=1

Roy
I'm not even sure what that means "support the latest CSS standards".
Neither CSS 2.1 or 3 is even in recommendation stage, and we all know (or
should anyways) that a browser that implements a standard before it's
finalized is just creating yet another nightmare we have to support when
it's implementation invariably differs from the final standard.

These words were not mine, they were Paul's. I fully agree with your
argument though.

CSS2.0 was never fully implemented by any browser, and isn't going to be
(which is the reason for 2.1).

Frankly, if *ALL* Microsoft did was fix the bugs in IE6 i'd be ecstactic
at having a browser that did what I expected it to do, even if it didn't
support everything I wanted it to. My life would be SO much simpler.

However, this assumes that you are using Windows XP. This creates a
different type of "nightmare" as you called it. Once developers begin to
cater for a majority (Windows XP, possibly with IE7), older computer
systems will suffer. I wrote about it a few hours ago:

http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archiv...ndows-snubbed/

Then again, here is more of a reason to use Firefox...

Happily, that doesn't appear to be all their doing, though they're not
going to have full support, with lots of stuff they didn't support
earlier.
Is it a disappointment? Sure, but I doubt anyone expected it to be
perfect.

The disappointment can be broken up as follows:

1) IE7 only supports XP+. This was /not/ the initial plan

2) IE7 'extends' RSS without any world-wide consensus

3) IE7 keeps some developers in the dark

4) IE7 primarily imitates Firefox (tabs, search bar, maybe live bookmarks)

5) IE7 will urge users to use MSN search (unfair exploitation of a monopoly)

I could probably think of more, but I'll stick to the 5-point 'take home'
rule.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

[Kevin Wu Won]

> I'm not even sure what that means "support the latest CSS standards".

Neither CSS 2.1 or 3 is even in recommendation stage
Yes, but from the CSS 2.1 spec: "There must be at least two interoperable
implementations for every feature." In other words, implementors are
expected to start working on CSS 2.1 support *now*, and in fact, the spec
will never become a recommendation until at least two implementations are
made for each feature.
and we all know (or
should anyways) that a browser that implements a standard before it's
finalized is just creating yet another nightmare we have to support when
it's implementation invariably differs from the final standard.
The final recommendation won't be very different from the current draft.
The only thing likely to change is a few dropped features if those
features prove impossible or very hard to implement.
CSS2.0 was never fully implemented by any browser, and isn't going to be
(which is the reason for 2.1).
This is also part of the reason in the change of W3C policy (as above).
Frankly, if *ALL* Microsoft did was fix the bugs in IE6 i'd be ecstactic
at
having a browser that did what I expected it to do, even if it didn't
support everything I wanted it to. My life would be SO much simpler.
Yep. Before they even consider adding new features to try competing with
Opera, Firefox and Safari, they should be fixing bugs.
Is it a disappointment? Sure, but I doubt anyone expected it to be
perfect.

I was hoping for a perfect engine in the final, so I wouldn't have to (as
a web developer) test in Firefox, IE6 *and* IE7.

--
Kevin Wu Won exclipy #40979410
@gmail.com

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach Kevin Wu Won:

I was hoping for a perfect engine in the final, so I wouldn't have to
(as a web developer) test in Firefox, IE6 *and* IE7.

Will it be possible to run IE6 and IE7 side by side? I know one can have
IE4, IE5, IE5.5 and IE6 running side by side, but what about IE7?