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First, he embraced
Does this mean IE 7 will be interoperable with other browsers? Does it mean IE 7 will take Web standards seriously?
Don't get your hopes up. Microsoft has a long history of promising interoperability, while failing to deliver. In an e-mail to Gates (reprinted in the
Microsoft has repeatedly promised full support for key Web standards in Internet Explorer. Here, with reference to the
"Microsoft has a deep commitment to working with the W3C on HTML and CSS. We have the first commercial implementation of HTML4, we were the first vendor anywhere to implement even portions of CSS, and we have put a tremendous amount of energy into seeing CSS mature to Level 2. We are still committed to complete implementations of the Recommendations of the W3C in this area (CSS and HTML and the DOM)."
Yet Microsoft failed to deliver on these promises, and the cascading style sheets standard CSS2 is still not supported in IE 6. As a result, interoperability on the Web suffers.
In 2002, Microsoft
Microsoft's own Web servers are configured to send different versions of Web pages to disparate browsers. For example, the servers sniff out the Opera browser and send it different style sheets from the ones they send to Microsoft's own Internet Explorer. As a result, Opera
The acid test
To ensure that IE 7 does not become another failed promise, the Web community will issue a challenge to Microsoft. We will produce a test page, code-named Acid2, that will actively use features Web designers crave, such as fixed positioning of elements.
Fixed positioning is described in the W3C's CSS2 Recommendation, to which Microsoft has a "deep commitment." However, fixed positioning has been supported for years by all modern browsers except IE for Windows.
Other features are partially supported in IE, but designers enter a minefield of bugs when trying to use these features. All software has
Microsoft now has the chance to redeem itself with regard to Web interoperability. All it needs to do is make sure IE 7 passes the Acid2 test before shipping.
The Acid2 test will be sponsored by the
As the test name implies, this will be the second acid test put forward for Web browsers. The original acid test, created by Todd Fahrner in 1997, was instrumental in ensuring interoperability between browsers in their CSS1 implementations. The existence of the acid test forced browser vendors to fix their implementations or face embarrassment; the test was created so that testers could easily see which browsers failed the test.
Even Microsoft made sure IE 6 passed the acid test. As a result of the acid test, CSS became usable and has changed the way Web sites are authored.
Web designers are now ready for the next phase. Acid2 will test the features they want to use. Will Microsoft support interoperability? Will it deliver on its promises?
To the IE 7 developers, I want to say:
You are smart and talented. You know Web standards as well as anyone. You were capable of fixing IE in the past, but your managers didn't let you. You now have a new chance to get it right--don't waste it. Download Acid2 when it's released and get in touch if you think it's unfair for any reason. Resist pressure from management to ship before you are done--spend the extra time it takes. When they say you can't change how pages are rendered as this may "break" pages, tell them about
Show them that other browsers get it right. Explain how embarrassing it will be to release a browser that doesn't live up to community standards and that the Mozilla Foundation's
What you do is important. The Web will thank you for your efforts.
To the Web community I want to say: Microsoft has now been challenged. They will respond, if enough people remind them of the challenge. Please remind them. And, when IE 7 is released, make sure this is the first thing you type into it:
Biography
Håkon Wium Lie is chief technology officer of
See more CNET content tagged:
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positioning
Great idea!
Definitive Guide'. I finally commited myself to ditching tables for
element positioning, and am already reaping the benefits. This
absolutely must become standardized... please MS, get on it. As
well, update your older browsers for OS' not capable of running
IE 7. You enjoy your ~90% browser market share through illegal
actions of the past, if it were up to me, I would demand that you
make these changes. Your inaction over the last four years has
been a huge retardant to our collective progress. You should be
embarrassed and ashamed. Oh, and OS X makes you look silly
and helpless.
Rare is the situation where MS thinks outside its own little box it trapped itself in. They need to join the rest of the computing world and stop being isolationists.
While I would like to see a fully compliant IE7 and while I fear the result of what Microsoft will deliver, I think Opera needs to take a hard look at itself.
While Mozilla and Safari and even IE6 often render specific CSS the same, Opera is often the odd one out. Release after release, the same bugs persist in Opera. Gaps do appear between
Or you can isolate the problem and think of a workaround, but that will effectively break Mozilla or Safari rendering.
For IE we've luckily got CSS filters (thanks to Tantek), but for Opera/Mozilla/Safari we haven't got a way to single out browser-specific bugs.
Of course we should not have those, we should have browsers that render the ssame CSS statements the same way, in a predicatble manner.
Could you be more specific about your problems with Opera? And report it to Opera's bugtracking system so it may be fixed?
I surely hope so.
By not upgrading IE to better CSS and png support, Microsoft is hindering us developers to make the internet to what it is enabled to do already.
And I am sick of it :)
implementations of standards. Acid2 will not shield any browser, including Opera.
b1 (ok it's still preview release) Opera 8 on OS X doesn't pass the
acid test either... note quite as wacky as the Safari render, but
still wack.
Great idea, but shouldn't Opera's browser work with it already?
.:S:.
- I hope they stop using ActiveX
-
by cdesimoni
November 20, 2005 6:41 AM PST
- Microsoft said since July 16, 1996 that "ActiveX is currently
-
Reply to this comment
-
See all 23 Comments >>supporte on the Windows Operating system. Microsoft is
working with Metrowerks to support ActiveX on the Macintosh
platform, and is also working with Bristol and Mainsoft to
support it on UNIX platforms. Developers who write ActiveX
controls and other ActiveX objects will be able to reach the
widest possible user audience with this cross platform solution."
Microsoft still has not done this and Active X is not compatible
with the Mac. I wish in there new IE7 (even though it will be for
the PC, I wish and hope they do away with ActiveX. It is more of
a security risk anyways. Take a look at www.vipmayflower.com .