Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

[Jonty]

Hi guys

You can now view the new features of Internet Explorer 8. The additions seem nice, although some are more interesting than others (and still no in-line find like Firefox!). The download links will be activated soon. Web developers can also rejoice at 'proper' standards support that will be enabled by default.

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. For the sake of completeness: Firefox 3 Beta 3, Opera 9.50 Beta 1 and Safari 3 (if you must ).

 

[dysfunction]

what do you mean by "in-line find"?

 

[Jonty]

what do you mean by "in-line find"?

Hi dysfunction

Sorry, maybe it's a clumsy description, I mean the following:

It's just simple and unobtrusive (i.e. it doesn't steal focus or block part of the webpage), and it makes life a little easier when you do a lot of research on the web. IE's solution is far less elegant, even though the end result is the nearly same.

Kind regards

 

[GReaper]

At least they've got rid of the horrid optional super standards mode before releasing this.

If it actually works with the websites instead of forcing web designers to use hacks then great! Just a shame it'll take years before older versions of IE die out.

 

[Jonty]

Just a shame it'll take years before older versions of IE die out.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. IE7 reached 100 million users quite quickly because of it's unique nature (i.e. part of Windows Vista, and rolled out as a security update via automatic updates). Normally this may be objectionable, but it does help to get rid of outmoded software (i.e. IE6).

Of course you can never stop people using old technology, but at some point you need to draw a line in the sand and accept that some (even quite a lot) of visitors won't get a 'premium' experience. Ultimately we shouldn't aim to make everything render identically across all platforms and browsers, merely offer the same content in an accessible way.

Anyway, hats off to the IE team for making the standards-compliant rendering default, and for implementing version targeting (i.e. you can instruct IE to either use the latest rendering engine, or to always use (for example) IE8's rendering engine even when IE9 and later releases come out, thus ensuring your site won't 'break').

Kind regards

 

[TdC]

thus ensuring your site won't 'break'

doesn't that mean your site will be broken but you just won't see it?

*steals Jonty's laptop*

 

[DaGaffer]

I wouldn't worry too much about this.

IE6 is still nearly a third of the market and the second largest browser in its own right. Never underestimate the power of user inertia, and dumbass IT managers.

 

[MYstIC G]

Not touching this with a 20ft barge pole.

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

I installed this at work today and so far it's quite nice. The jump isn't as big as from IE6 to IE7, but there are still some helpful improvements:

• Activities: context-sensitive options, such as viewing a map or a translation without navigating away from the page.
• Developer tools: these are pretty sophisticated now, inline with Firefox, so hopefully they will ship with the final release.
• IE7 rendering: there is a little button at the top which switched to IE7's rendering engine. This is useful because quite a few sites currently have glitches in the IE8's updated engine (including FreddysHouse). Perhaps this will disappear, or be buried, by the time it ships.
• Address bar improvements: the domain is now highlighted to guard against phishing (although it's not quite perfect, NHS Direct - Health & Medical Information confused it), and the addresses may be listed in the ordered visited (but it seems inconsistent, so perhaps it's just a bug! Edit: Just a bug ).
• Crash recovery0: sadly it crashed once, but automatically restarted and remembered all my tabs, so that's an improvement.

Of course there's the other features too, but the above are what I've mostly used. Overall it feels like a more polished IE7, which I guess is no bad thing. Silverlight 2's beta has also been updated, and it features some nice features for developers (like Seadragon photo zooming (check out Hard Rock and/or watch the TED talk)).

Kind regards

Jonty

doesn't that mean your site will be broken but you just won't see it?

*steals Jonty's laptop*

It depends on your perspective. A lot of sites use non-standard code (especially because of IE6 and below). When browser vendors standardise their rendering engines, these sites are then rendered 'correctly', but the hacks cause problems so it's not as the developer intended.

Version targeting allows a developer to say 'use IE7's engine, Firefox 2.1's engine, Opera 9.5's engine' etc. even when later browsers are released. The code may still be flawed, but it will be rendered as the developer intended (this is a Microsoft idea, so support by Mozilla, Opera etc. isn't guaranteed).

P.S. You can have my laptop if you buy me a new one

IE6 is still nearly a third of the market and the second largest browser in its own right.

That's true, and it depends on the kind of site you're designing (i.e. if mass-market appeal is important). However, in relation to other browsers' growth, IE7 is still in a unique position. That said, maybe IE8 can't be rolled out as a security update, therefore adoption may be slower.

Not touching this with a 20ft barge pole.

True, it's a beta for developers, plus many prefer Firefox and Opera because of their needs. IE is still nowhere near as customizable.

 

[Aesgir]

Thanks, i'll give this a try. I use firefox for all my browsing needs so i've no issue of getting rid of the crapware that is IE7 to try the beta.

Not so sure about the standards compliance however, they said they'll make it 'as standards compliant as is possible' so i'm still expecting the standard microsoft tricks, just a few less this time.

 

[MYstIC G]

True, it's a beta for developers, plus many prefer Firefox and Opera because of their needs. IE is still nowhere near as customizable.

Oh, it's nothing to do with that Jonty, it's more the "de-weeding" that has to be done when the final is released and beta is to die that I no longer wish to entertain.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Aesgir

If you didn't like IE7, you won't like IE8, as it's very similar to use As for standards, the IE team has actually done really well this time, such as IE8 rendering the Acid2 test correctly (Firefox 2 can't, but v3 can). IE7 made good progress, but as a web developer it's IE8 that I'm really looking forward to.

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. Meg, you're right, IE is still too heavily integrated with Windows. Testing betas of other browsers is a lot easier.

 

[Aesgir]

I'd like it more if it didn't seem to crash every 5th web page for me, or the 64-bit version actually seemed to work at all. Wasn't really the interface that caused me any concerns.

It's encouraging that they've done something right with this version though, and yes you're right, the rendering seems much improved over IE7.

Obviously i won't comment on stability, it's a beta

Not too sure about these 'web-slices' though, RSS feeds are good enough for me