Internet Explorer 8 - Yet more IE specific tags..

[Blink]

Just been reading through the Internet Explorer Blog and it's not looking good for the internet from a standards point of view.

It seems that Microsoft were bothered about the way in which IE7 didn't render old sites properly (mainly bcause the DOCTYPE switch in IE6 is failing due to everyone using a proper doctype now) and so they've reached out to the webstandards project and they, of all people, have suggested a special meta tag that tells IE8 to render a site properly, otherwise it falls back to olden shitty rendering.

This is the post about their proposed plans and also there was an article on A List Apart from the web standards chap who helped propose the meta tag route, this also helps describe the Doctype problem.

The funny thing is (and MS don't seem to realise) is that Firefox and Opera etc all conform to modern standards and I can't think of a website that is broken to the point that it is unusable. Yet MS are so worried about it they are introducing a new meta tag that developers will have to use if they plan to have their site look okay in IE8.

I truely thought they were just going to make a new browser that conformed to current standards and begin paving the way to a new era of web development where I can make one website and it works on everyones PC.

Now it's back to special rules and bullshit code just to make IE8 work properly, and they even want Mozilla to take it on as well.

The days of making special allowances for IE are faaaar from over...

[Megadude]

I would say that no-one should bother making allowances for IE8. If everyone did that, then Microsoft would see usage of IE drop way way down, and they would have to conform to everyone else's standards, instead of making up their own for people to work to. Saying that, I'm still using IE6, as I don't like using IE7, so I don't know if that last statement makes me a bit hypocritical

[The Wanderer]

theres only one thing i can say, FireFox > IE
but seriously, does MS even expect is to learn their "special" shitty code? I'm probably not even going to bother...

[Forceflow]

Using crummy fixes for your rendering engine is one thing.
Trying to make them the standard is another.

[rb_lestr]

Yet another reason for people to use Firefox.

[Emazing]

Nothing is more frustrating than finishing a design, or even a small part of a design, then popping it open in Internet Explorer and seeing it display all wrong. Then you have to go through the pains of implementing fixes. Internet Explorer should be phased out of existence.

[Frips]

http://www.vilain.com/web-design.html

That just about sums it up.

The only reason IE is still in existence is because it is packaged with all Windows OSes. The majority of people use Windows (Sorry Mac, Linux, etc users), and don't realize how crappy IE is, thus they do not feel the need to use web standard browsers like firefox or opera.

As a result, M$ will continue to do things their way. As a standard practice, whenever I work on someone's computer, I ask them if its ok to install Firefox, which usually gets a yes, and then delete shortcuts to IE informing them of the major benefits (and less security risks) of updating to a good browser.

And those who still use IE6? Shame on you. If your going to stick with IE, get IE7. IE7 is far from good, but its a hell of a lot better than IE6, and requires much less development time/IE specific hacks from us developers to get proper rendering of pages.

[ChopperDave]

I say fuck all this. Let's go back to text-only web pages, the way it's meant to be.

[EagleStrike]

I've always preffered IE7 over FireFox, but I am not going to upgrade my copy so Microsoft, just to make sure I don't have to worry too much about this problem. Quite frankly, I think this is an absolute load of bull shit. I have visited sites, not updated since 1999, and ones where they're still using html 2.0, and it loads fine. They're just trying to pressurise the rest of the internet into following them or getting left behind, and eventually, it will be only Microsoft left, and that's what they want...

[reaper47]

Didn't they brag about passing the ACID2 test? That's quite a step from there to introducing a fix/hack special tag. The funny thing is, only web-developers will be bothered with this. Consumers will either not notice or will see pages being displayed incorrectly in IE8 only. With a little luck they will try Firefox instead of writing angry mails to the website-creators (*believes in the sanity of the average internet user*).

Anyway, in my eyes, they fail. Badly.

Also, I wonder what objective reason there is to prefer IE over FF?

[Mr. Happy]

So web designers will have to line one line of code to their website?

[Blink]

So web designers will have to line one line of code to their website?

Yes, and change it each time IE changes a version. The argument being that with web standards you should make one website that fits all. Microsoft are bringing out a standards compliant browser that still needs it's own specific tags, defeating the whole point.

[ghost12332]

"The day microsoft makes a good product, will be the day when they start selling vacuum cleaners"

[zombie@computer]

"The day microsoft makes a good product, will be the day when they start selling vacuum cleaners"

epic fail

correct answer was:

"The day microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, will be the day when they start making vacuum cleaners"

[Emazing]

"The day microsoft makes a good product, will be the day when they start selling vacuum cleaners"

epic fail

correct answer was:

"The day microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, will be the day when they start making vacuum cleaners"

rofl.