IE7 Revs Up

Published 18 years, 8 months past

I don’t think I can say this without sounding smug, so I’ll just say it: this is what I was talking about.  If you went ahead and tried to hack your site so it worked in the previous beta, I’m sorry, but I tried to warn you.

It’s also why I said CSS hacks weren’t necessarily dead yet, or even likely to cause real problems, because there’s every chance that IE7 will be close to being another Firefox (in the standards-support and layout-behavior senses).  We can’t be sure of that yet, of course, but the results described by Molly are pointing in that direction.

Sure, we’d like to see a hack-free Web, but that point will not come until a few years after IE7 finally ships.  No, that’s wrong: we’ll never have a hack-free Web.  But we might reach a time where cross-browser presentation has become not only commonplace, but subconsciously assumed, like our current expectation that a browser will know how to handle hyperlinks.

Comments (15)

  1. This compilation of nice, encouraging screen shots would have had more
    relevance to those who actually do the job to send MS dozens of
    bug reports if the authors would have reported what bugs on their sites
    were fixed.

  2. Hello!

    While IE 7 is *trying* to take web standards seriously … I believe it’s kinda late. That’s because there’s simply not enough time to make the rendering engine as good as Gecko, not even close to it.

    As for improvements in IE 7 beta 1: none. Beta 2: some/small. The CSS layouts I’ve done for a few sites still do not render properly, nor better. I know that’s because I have the bad luck of encountering some bugs that weren’t fixed yet.

    I don’t use CSS hacks. I dislike them. I use conditional comments in which I put my IE-only CSS which makes the layout look OK.

    What I also dislike is this code:

    Six
    Seven

    … outputs on IE 6 and IE 7: “This is IE version … Six”.

    They should make conditional comments work in IE 7 final, because it’s inevitable: some bugs will remain. Web developers will be required to be able to work around them.

    That’s about all. Congratulations to Microsoft for making IE 7, but … I don’t “buy it”. I have to see it working much better, not just “it will”.

  3. I’ll actually believe IE7 works properly when I see it. What I’d rather see developers not trying to make sites and web based content management systems IE complient when to become complient you force all other browsers to not work. This is particularly frustrating to me since Windows will not develop a new IE for mac.

    Its called standards for a reason right? The best we can all do for our own sake is build a website free of errors and hacks because eventually browser development will catch up with the basics.

  4. I say, that the “Hacks” will never disappear. What we are calling as “the hacks” – actually are adjustments which every industry and tecnology has. So i see absolutely no reason to believe that the hacks will disappear, just because somebody (in this case Microsoft) is going to bring a new browser version on the market.

    I am also going to believe the changes only after i see them in the final version. It would take a slightly better firm, then the Microsoft, to convince me to make some changes, basing only on the beta version.

    I do not believe, that Microsoft is going to bring a new “savior”, but i hope for it =O)

  5. IE7 may be decent when it comes out – it may even be “good enough”, but it won’t rival the Gecko engine just yet. There’s too much historical cruft in IE’s rendering engine. Only when they start over (just as Netscape did with Gecko) can we expect anything close.

  6. I agree that IE7 won’t rival Gecko-based browsers… but then, it doesn’t *need* to.

    All it needs to do is fix a few of the *really* irritating CSS problems, and we’re all a lot better off. Right now, for us lot, this isn’t about browser wars, nor is it about IE being as good as Gecko-based browsers – it’s simply about making certain, common, specific things a hell of a lot easier. And from what we’re seeing so far, it’s looking extremely encouraging in this respect.

  7. I’m not concerned with IE7 at this point anyway, because it’s not realistic to design for a browser that will take at least a year, probably 2 years before any saturation takes place making it a viable platform to design for.
    Microsoft is always playing catch-up and then claiming ideas were theirs (gotta love that) and in the meantime, better browsers are slowly coming into their own and MS will not dominate the browser market forever.
    I do not use any hack period, only what works with all browsers period. Hacks are for the coding challenge and less for overall usability in my opinion. In some perfect world where everything works correctly some people would still use hacks because that’s the kind of person they are.
    By the way, I really prefer Flash whenever possible, as it displays properly across all browsers. I use Flash sometimes even for relatively static treatments just for that reason. HTML-based web sites and applications are going away some day, unless technologies like AJAX become easier to code in all situations.

  8. IE7 will suck no matter what Microsoft does because as others already pointed out it is behind the times… but so are over 70% of people browsing the internet, few of whom care about web standards and what a site might look like in a different browser.

    Personally I design using good structure, good code and whatever I need to get a consistent look and feel cross browser so as to cater to the masses.

    As web designers & developers it is our reality.

  9. …until a few years after IE7 finally ships.

    Man this is realy not a promissor thought!

  10. I use Flash sometimes even for relatively static treatments just for that reason.

    eek…is anybody else scared by this comment? I really think it would be worrisome if more people took this approach. When I do sites two of the most important things I try to keep in mind are usability and accessibility…flash (still) has serious draw-backs when it comes to those two things. I know I’m not alone with this opinion.

    One of the reasons I am willing struggle with cross-browser compatibility issues is that I’m trying to provide a usable and accessible solution…

  11. Yeah, almost everyone I know closes Flash sites imediately, they put up with a splash page (well, most of the time, if it’s skippable) but that’s about it..

    Flash is the bastard child of site design, and with good reason. Whole sites made from it are just… bad. Also, as far as the net is concerned, they are contentless.

  12. I agree, I just wish somebody could convince our Sales VP at my work so he’d stop selling these flash sites and I could stop doing them :(

  13. Even though flash can be annoying everyone I know thinks. Oh the best websites are those flash websites. I usually just use flash for making movies with. It is somehow attractive to people though. Flash is actually pretty good. If your website isn’t got lots of serious content and stuff that is. EVen the people I know admit flash isn’t good for “serious” sites.

    But more on subject. So far I am unimpressed by IE 7. It’s only beta though so there could still be hope. I know people who have tried other browsers and then gone back to IE6. Tried IE7 but then gone back to IE6 (some of them even re-installed windows XP just because they didn’t know how to get it back). It’s like WTF Microsoft. IE6 must have hypnotizing qualities or something.

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  15. When I first saw IE7 the first thing that came into my mind was, “Is this inspired by FF?” I”ve been alternately using FF and IE7 for almost 6 months now but I can still see and experience the difference. FF still remains to be user-friendly and easily downloads, unlike IE7.