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IE8: "On the path to Web Standards Compliance"
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:04 pm
by John Cartwright
Has Microsoft finally realized web standards are important?!
http://www.digg.com/microsoft/Internet_ ... ACID2_test
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:09 pm
by alex.barylski
I haven't read it - but I will and I"l.l save that link too thanks.
Anyways, I sure hope they have. After spending the better part of two days re-designing my application UI and adjusting the validating XHTML only to find it doesn't work in IE6...jesus...I just want the same code to work in all browsers thank you very much.

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:26 pm
by Luke
heard this on slashdot... very nice.
EDIT: just because I'm curious... what does acid stand for? I read in my mysql book that it relates to transactions. Did the acid2 test just borrow the word acid from transaction testing?
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:46 pm
by s.dot
Maybe they'll gain back some of the market share from standards compliant browsers. But, the damage is already done. They should've followed down this path 5+ years ago and I'd still be using IE. They lost a lot of people to mozilla, opera, safari, and others.
And unless it gets to the point where IE is such the gold standards of standards compliance, that people openly start loathing firefox and it becomes a hassle to develop for firefox, then I won't be switching.

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:45 am
by anjanesh
They've mentioned the details on their blog (
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/1 ... stone.aspx)
I was hoping this would be available in
Windows XP SP3 RC - maybe it'll be available on SP3 Final.
Its mentioned that web developers can just add an HTML tag at the beginning to indicate to render in standards mode or not.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:58 am
by s.dot
This will take a long time to come into effect, though. A very large percentage of xp users are still using ie6 and lower. Not to mention people still using ME, 95, 98. Too many versions of IE with drastically different rendering capabilities.

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:40 am
by alex.barylski
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:heard this on slashdot... very nice.
EDIT: just because I'm curious... what does acid stand for? I read in my mysql book that it relates to transactions. Did the acid2 test just borrow the word acid from transaction testing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 4:41 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
I think that the fact there is an IE8 at all is suggestive things are improving. IE7 was incredibly hyped and became a disappointment in the end. I still open up IE7 and get the location of all those buttons wrong!
I still think they'll have a lot of catching up to do. The open source browsers have conquered (mostly) web standards or at least have a handle on them. The selling points between each have progressed past the basics into the realm of who's faster, who is more extendible, who's javascript engine is best, who's...
Unless IE8 racks up points on that level it's still going to get slated upon release.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:33 am
by Kieran Huggins
The term "acid test" comes from the gold rush. Gold reacts differently to most acids than other metals; prospectors used acid mixtures to verify their claims. It's now synonymous with "foolproof, independent verification".
It's just an unfortunate coincidence that DBs use the same word as an acronym.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:11 am
by malcolmboston
good to know, but seeing as adoption rates of IE7 have been pitiful and IE6 is still by far the most used browser, it really means nothing to me as i will still have to code for IE6.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:01 am
by RobertGonzalez
I still have to set conditional hacks for IE (6 and 7) and I don't see Microsoft being compliant any time soon. No matter what they say. They have screwed people long enough that I am of the stance of "I'll believe it when I see it" from them.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:58 am
by Kieran Huggins
New browser versions always take years to replace their previous versions. Vista, flopping like it did, only compounds the issue.
I applaud MS for passing Acid2, but it means very little for us poor developers since IE6 still works fine for the users that are happy with it. The fact that many people didn't update to IE7 is a clear indicator that those same users won't upgrade to IE8 either.
Good job IE team; too bad the OS team cut your legs off. Best of luck!
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:05 am
by Luke
thanks guys... good to know (in reference to ACID)
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:12 am
by matthijs
They should just stop developing IE and ship Firefox with the next OS update.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:10 pm
by Jenk
They'll chuck in a load of other non-compliance crap I'm betting.