Vertical Tangent

Internet Explorer has got to be every web developer’s nightmare. With the recent release of version 8, things are finally making sense why the browser is so uninterested and sheepish in adopting web standards into the browser. Where contending browsers (Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome and Opera) are making strides in adopting new technologies (like HTML5 and CSS3) that are being thrown out into the wild, Internet Explorer is actually focusing on things that matter, à la security and open-ness.

In a recent interview with the Web Designer magazine, Amy Barzdukas, Microsoft’s general manager for Internet Explorer and Consumer Security said, “Our first competition is really our own past browser [Internet Explorer 6] … and of course, people’s perception of what IE is…” She later added, “Consumers aren’t that worried about [the] ACID3 test [.. but ...] about other pressing matters like security.”

The W3C standards are the actual problem

For a consumer-focused company like Microsoft, stepping up into an aggressive inclusion of web-standards support  is just not feasible enough. For one thing though, web standards aren’t always as clearly defined. Most of the web standards still clog the W3C think tanks as working drafts – which means they are not yet complete at all in any shape or form. Either, there’s a feature that a certain browser vendor isn’t happy with or it dissatisfies some other aspect of design for their rendering capabilities. Take for instance, the new HTML5 specification which asks for support for out-of-the-box video experience and native media support in all browsers. Even though the <video> tag has been clearly defined in the specification, vendors still aren’t sure what formats need to be supported by default – Theora or H.264. Indecision haunts these standards recommendations and adopters.

When the CSS2.1 specification was established in 1999 as a W3 working draft, no one anticipated it would take 10 years until 2009 for it to actually be released as recommended specification. And surprise, surprise – the only browser that does fully support the CSS2.1 specification is none other than IE itself. No other browser supports the complete recommended specification for CSS2.1 and still they are aggressively pursuing CSS3. In the end, a browser that takes this course just ends up with an often incomplete support for the same. In effect, Microsoft has adopted a new strategy that states only taking up specifications that are completed or are near completion. This would imply that not much effort is spent in pruning or trimming edges when those very specifications do change. In an interview with Tech Republic, Ian Hickson, the editor of the HTML5 working draft gave a deadline for the completion of the draft – it was much farther than any one ever expected – all the way in 2022.

Now, the question really is – should Microsoft really start implementing the whole standard straight away. We’ve recently discussed how HTML5 can already be used in today’s browsers with the inclusion of a few hacks. Why not use hacks to do the stuff until W3C shortens the deadline?

Lower-order versions with Internet Explorer

The latest version of Internet Explorer that I have installed here on my system is (as you’ve guessed) version 8. Before it was (you are right) version 7. Now, version 8 is a far cry from its predecessors, in that most of the rendering capabilities for the new version have been included in the design from scratch. Problem with the adoption of newer standards as they appear might also be Microsoft’s deployment strategies – whereby Microsoft delivers products with a higher-order version, like 7 or 8. What contenders do is to often release a few lower-order versions before releasing a final product. Mozilla already has released five lower-order versions for Firefox 3. As of today (28 October 2009), Mozilla would be releasing the Firefox 3.6 beta 1 for testing purposes and feedback.

If Internet Explorer comes up with lower-order version in between releases, there is a far greater chance that Internet Explorer would better equip itself with the growing trends present online today. Anyone for nightly builds? This might just help build a support community for the browser and deliver better features with every release.