IE8: More web standards tests submitted to the W3C

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Earlier this year when Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate was released, the IE team submitted 3784 new test cases to the CSS 2.1 Working Group for inclusion into the CSS 2.1 test suite. And today, the IE team announced that it is submitting 196 new test cases to the CSS 2.1 Working Group for inclusion into the CSS 2.1 test suite.

"Today, the IE Team is submitting 196 new test cases to the CSS 2.1 Working Group for inclusion into the CSS 2.1 test suite. These cases were developed since IE8 RC. This brings Microsoft's contribution to the CSS 2.1 Test Suite to 7201 tests. IE8 passes all of these tests today as well as the rest of the tests in the current official CSS 2.1 test suite. We're working closely with the CSS working group to include the new tests in the official test suite. For now, these tests are available at the Windows Internet Explorer Testing Center"

Jason Upton, Test Manager, Internet Explorer, also encouraged other browser vendors to contribute to the W3C's CSS 2.1 test suite so those tests may be used by any browser under the W3C's license.

The test cases can be found at Windows Internet Explorer Testing Center and is available for everyone to test. Please keep in mind that prerequisites might be needed for certain tests and they might fail if not. Upton also mentioned in one of his comments that there are some test case issues that have been raised on the official test suite

"Also take a look at the other test case issues that have been raised on the official test suite. There are some test suite bugs in the official test suite that fail and need to be corrected. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public...suite/2009Feb/"

In an email sent to IE8 beta participants, Microsoft made it clear that it is still looking for new bugs and users can still submit bugs for IE8 if any.

"We are looking for new IE8 bugs and bugs that have regressed (meaning the bug was previously fixed and now occurs in IE8 RTW). Please only reactivate issues that were resolved as Fixed and reproduce in IE8 RTW. We will automatically resolve any other bug that is reactivated. Please see below for more information on re-activating your bugs.

The Internet Explorer 8 Feedback website on Microsoft Connect will remain open and we will not delete any of your previously submitted bugs.

In the next couple of months, we will introduce a new type of feedback form designed specifically to handle improvements for the next version of Internet Explorer. Please stay tuned for more information."

(5 replies) #1 Rolith on 21 Mar 2009 - 05:34

Glad to see they are indeed working towards standards... reactionary's might say they're responding to competition, but it seems like microsoft as a whole is moving towards a more open mentality. If anything it shows confidence in their product.

#1.1 Tikitiki on 21 Mar 2009 - 05:59

I agree, this kind of work done by Microsoft shows confidence & skill.

#1.2 The_Decryptor on 21 Mar 2009 - 06:33

It's always fluctuated depending on what the standard is, as well as internal company politics at the time.

I mean, A few of the IE guys were authors of XHTML, yet they're pushing against implementing the newer JavaScript versions, and still going their own route for certain things even when a (in progress) spec exists for it.

#1.3 Jugalator on 21 Mar 2009 - 10:16

A few of the IE guys were authors of XHTML

This is hilarious since IE doesn't support XHTML, and just renders it as HTML.

(it only supports the text/html media type, unlike pretty much any other modern browser in existence)

#1.4 +DonC on 21 Mar 2009 - 11:24

Jugalator said,

IE doesn't render XHTML at all. If you decide to generate your pages as XHTML, you need need to employ tricks so that IE interprets it as valid HTML.

#1.5 +M2Ys4U on 21 Mar 2009 - 13:29

For historical reasons. During either IE8 or 7's development they were asked if they were going to support XHTML properly, and they said no because Trident's XML handling needed to be pretty much done from scratch.

#2 billyea on 21 Mar 2009 - 06:08

To 2.1... and beyond!

(9 replies) #3 dvb2000 on 21 Mar 2009 - 07:59

here's a bug for you. make this your home page: http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Everytime you start IE8 it will fail with a "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" error message.

refreshing the page/link will work and the page will then display properly. Only when IE8 first starts will it fail with the error message. Never been an issues with any browser before (including all the earlier Internet Explorers)

#3.1 franzon on 21 Mar 2009 - 08:55

no problems here

#3.2 Max1978 on 21 Mar 2009 - 09:04

Started, open the page, no issues.

Maybe you have a bad network connection? Sometimes Wi-Fi craps out unexpectedly.

#3.3 Chaks on 21 Mar 2009 - 09:30

@dvb2000 - Its working fine here. No problems and no crashes yet with IE 8 RTM!

#3.4 bryonhowley on 21 Mar 2009 - 10:04

No problems here ether and I am on Wi-Fi.

#3.5 rpgfan on 21 Mar 2009 - 11:40

dvb2000 said,

No problems here either. I think you're just experiencing a connection timeout issue.

#3.6 GreyWolfSC on 21 Mar 2009 - 14:00

Works fine for me, too.

#3.7 waruikoohii on 21 Mar 2009 - 15:21

I do actually have this problem.

I suspect that if I clear my temporary internet files, it'll fix the issue. I just haven't gotten around to doing that yet.

And no, my connection isn't bad. It happens almost 100% of the time, but all subsequent page loads are perfect (until I open a new browser window, when the initial home page load fails).

#3.8 Nauge on 21 Mar 2009 - 15:31

Yea, have this problem too... Occurs on my home connection and my university connection. I have recently formatted my laptop, installed IE8 RC1 and have the same problem...

Never had this problem with IE7

#3.9 Intelman on 21 Mar 2009 - 16:40

Nauge said,

How about IE8 final?

#4 WAR-DOG on 21 Mar 2009 - 10:05

yes, and because of these rendering options for these standards many pages fail to be loaded as they were ment.

(5 replies) #5 Jugalator on 21 Mar 2009 - 10:14

Why? Doesn't browsers already support CSS 2.1 very well, and in the cases there are few exceptions, these bugs are well documented?

This is also what Acid2 intended to do, btw. (yes, Acid2, we're talking of old standards here)

Why doesn't Microsoft publish a bunch of CSS 3 tests, which is where major work is being done across all browsers right now?

Now that would be useful.

Last edited by Jugalator on 21 Mar 2009 - 10:21

#5.1 McDave on 21 Mar 2009 - 10:55

I would suspect most websites still use CSS 2.1, getting IE up to scratch with that was important.

#5.2 XerXis on 21 Mar 2009 - 11:01

acid 2 only tests a very limited subset of css2.1/1. It's more intented for show than anything else. The w3c test suite enables any browser maker (also new engines that might arise) to test if they are fully supporting the spec.

#5.3 +Smigit on 21 Mar 2009 - 11:14

Acid test's arent the be-end all nor are they 100% comprehensive. Why not add additional tests that developers can use?

As for why they didn't target CSS3 scenarios. Did IE8 even get developed with CSS3 in mind? If not then that's probably a pretty good reason not to jump the gun in regards to releasing materials about that, especially given they may be rather sparse currently. I'm sure in the future MS will throw out some CSS 3 tests.

Currently I assume CSS2 is alot more meaningful to alot more people regardless of it being older.

#5.4 +DonC on 21 Mar 2009 - 11:27

Why doesn't Microsoft publish a bunch of CSS 3 tests, which is where major work is being done across all browsers right now?

I really hope they do. It would be nice to see some rigour in the W3C process.

#5.5 chAos972 on 21 Mar 2009 - 13:53

The Acid tests are okay but they're really just packaging up bunch of cases and putting pretty grahpics in front of it whereas these tests seem to be just straight up case-by-case.

#6 SathyaSarangan on 21 Mar 2009 - 11:59

This time MS wants to get it right.. With more than 60% browser market share they were still struggling to persuade most of the customer base to upgrade to IE7 from IE6. Hope IE8 makes the job easier for MS.

#7 franzon on 21 Mar 2009 - 13:14

"We believe that IE8 has the first complete implementation of CSS 2.1 in the industry and it is fully compliant with the current CSS 2.1 test suite."
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/03/2...to-the-w3c.aspx

#8 JonathanMarston on 21 Mar 2009 - 16:56

This is a big change for Microsoft. Instead of citing the fact that the standard is really not specific enough as a reason to not try and be "standards compliant" they're doing the standards group's job for them and fixing the standard. Bravo, MS!

(1 reply) #9 zivan56 on 21 Mar 2009 - 18:44

That's ok, but others are already supporting CSS3 with such nifty features as specifying colours in RGBA format (alpha channel).

#9.1 Rolith on 21 Mar 2009 - 18:55

"Others" being companies whose sole business is internet browsers. IE8 set out with several key goals in place, and it completed them as far as i'm concerned. Microsoft isn't the kind of company that, halfway through it's development cycle, sees a chane in the marketplace and turns and runs towards it. They wanted CSS 2.1 complacency and they got there. I'm guessing IE9 is going to go in the exact same direction.

(1 reply) #10 Quikboy on 22 Mar 2009 - 03:56

Here's a good interview/demo of IE8 with James Pratt, Senior Product Manager for IE:

http://www.onten.net/blogs/nic/Internet-Explorer-8-is-HERE/

#10.1 Chaks on 22 Mar 2009 - 07:48

Thanks for the link

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