IE8: three modes of returned not to break compatibilityJan 24, 2007 05:07 PM ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A very interesting ticket was posted recently by Chris Wilson, architect of the Internet Explorer platform, on the blog devoted to the Microsoft web browser. It there summarizes the situation of this last through its major last versions, and especially speaks about the choices necessary for the arrival of the eighth version. A chaotic historyFor Wilson, the creed to be followed to Internet Explorer 6 was the following: not to break the Web. When Internet Explorer had 95 % of market shares, each decision to be taken was of a crucial importance because it could impact the near total of the sites finally. However, the majority of the developers and webmasters learned how to function with Internet Explorer 6, and to find means of circumventing certain elements. In same time, the alternative browsers returned in a brutal load for Microsoft which did not have any more a real competitor since disappearance of Netscape. When the editor worked on Internet Explorer 7, the choices taken at this time led to a kind of schism. In the broad outlines, the important sites which could allow it often existed in two versions: for Internet Explorer, for the remainder. But mentalities change, because if the developers wished simply front to allow to the users of other browsers to correctly see the contents, it is more or less Internet Explorer itself now which is seen like an inappropriate element, and version 7 did not arrange the things. Soft-bitter realityBecause since years, the whole of the preferential treatments set up to make function certain things with Internet Explorer 6 did not go any more with the 7. This last broke the compatibility of a big number of sites, and the developers thus have redeveloped another version, generally specific to the newcomer. However, a simple replacement was not possible, because Internet Explorer 6 held an important market share. Today, it still counts for approximately 35 % visits on a worldwide scale. For Microsoft, the message “not to break the Web” changed into “do not change it what the developers expect as for the interpretation of Internet Explorer of the already existing pages”. A bitter lesson for Chris Wilson, but which led to the choices which were taken for version 8, currently in work. This one should be very clearly directed towards the standards of the Web with a consequent compatibility with the recommendations of the W3C. The result was recently the demonstration of the success of the Acid2 test which, if it is not the panacea, has the merit to testify to the support of an unquestionable number of technologies. Internet Explorer 8 the saver? Yes but…Internet Explorer 8 will present in fact three operating processes. The first will be that inherited the old versions of the browser, not to break compatibility. The second will be that of Internet Explorer 7. As for the last, new, it will be able to take seat by the description in the code, via a tag <meta>, that the page can be interpreted by IE8 like fully compatible with the recommendations of the W3C. In this case, the navigator should post the same result as with Firefox for example. Chris Wilson indicates that the objective is to make it possible the developers to finish some with the various versions of the code for each browser. Thus, when a site is created to be posted perfectly under Firefox or Safari, a tag will indicate to Internet Explorer 8 to use its engine of made most recent, so that the result is identical. The next version of the Microsoft browser should be that which could allow reconciliation between the editor and the developers, but in only one condition: that it can quickly be disseminated on the machines. And there, one suspects already that there will be a problem, because Vista will be obviously compatible, thus possibly that Windows XP Service Pack 2 or 3. As for the older configurations, they will remain once more with the 5 or 6, but it is always possible to use another navigator to get rid of the problem.
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