The linked article brings up a good point: why hasn’t someone built an OSS browser from the bottom up according to the standards? Why didn’t Mozilla decide to delay FF3 and redo Gecko so that was the way it parsed webpages?

I wish I had time to build one of these in my spare time…

Many people around the web have expressed concern that this is a short term solution which does not address or reduce the long term underlying problem. Many have stated this merely addresses symptoms and will not encourage standards.

So, which web will this break? The past or the future? It seems what people really want to know is, how will this solution both educate people and reduce the problematic amount of non-standard IE pages on the web, and promote accessibility? And secondly, when will JavaScript libraries be able to stop supporting less than or equal to IE7 DOM?

those who have historically demonstrated a capacity and willingness to do extra work (e.g., doing “the right thing”) will invariably be asked to do more precisely because of their capacity and willingness.

Exactly. I wish life were about “fair,” but it never has been.

Thanks for sharing it.

Why should the coder who does the right thing be forced to make non-standard inclusions in his/her code, don”t you agree that it should be the other way around?

I agree that would be just and fair. I also believe that justice and fairness have very little to do with how things actually turn out, and that those who have historically demonstrated a capacity and willingness to do extra work (e.g., doing “the right thing”) will invariably be asked to do more precisely because of their capacity and willingness.

Cross the desert or the mountains? Traverse a swampy delta or a hilly forest? Move through this valley or that one?

Well the straightest path “over the mountains or through the desert” will lead us to the end of the path because we can navigate by that big shiny thing in the sky (which in this metaphor we call web standards), go though the MS jungle/swamp/valley (where the big shiny thing is obfuscated) and you can expect to go in circles until you pop out right where you started (which in this metaphor we call 1999).

Sorry can’t be any more straight forward than that…

Yes we must add the <CC> elements to the HTML that allow these * * * * * to work in the first place!

We can just let IE handle the Intranet and have the good browsers for the Internet. The good browsers are just racing ahead of there previous versions and way beyond IE7.

Opera 9.5: The most keyboard accessible browser on the planet that just needs simple CSS to do something javascript could never manage.

Opera 9.5 and Safari 3 (nightly builds) support all attribute selectors and structural pseudo elements. All CSS3 selectors.

Opera 9.5, Safari 3 and Gecko 1.9 have various support for text shadow, background-size, hsla transparency, etc. Safari is the best.

Safari 3 and Gecko 1.9 layout engines have fixed many bugs.

Then there application/xhtml+xml, svg, much better script support, the list is endless.

I sorry but the IE8 meta targeting is not going to stop this evolution towards the good browsers. Once the general public gets one of the these babies in there hands, there is no looking back.

What would happen if my page had this meta IE=edge tag and it still falls for the *+html. IE7 style targeting the edge. Would Microsoft suggest to developers that we should use conditional comments for IE8. Yes we must add the elements to the HTML that allow these * * * * * to work in the first place!

I don’t see it as the responsibility of the standards compliant coder to opt-in again, I see it as the responsibility of the non-standards compliant coder to opt-out!

Why should the coder who does the right thing be forced to make non-standard inclusions in his/her code, don’t you agree that it should be the other way around?

Dear Microsoft,

Save yourself the time and trouble of developing IE and just bundle Firefox. Everybody wins!

Sincerely,

Everybody (May not include Opera Software or their 6 remaining users.)

Thank you.

I understand that IE8 will use the IE7 engine unless the content opts-in. My question is: where has it been stated, stated by someone with firsthand knowledge and authority or by someone with substantative basis in fact that all future versions of IE will be locked into the IE7 engine, e.g. IE9 –> Zeldman’s IE42?

In my view, that is the question at the root of all this agnst.

Thanks, again.

2. “Standards mode” remains the same as IE7, and compatible with current content.”