Microsoft: IE 8 to render sites compliant to web standards by default

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Seen on the the IE blog: Microsoft overturned their earlier decision to render websites in IE 7 standard mode by default. Instead Internet Explorer 8 will now by default interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly.

Source and details:

• Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 (entry on the IE Blog)
  
• News release on Microsoft PressPass
  

Edited March 4, 2008 by Mephistopheles

[5Horizons]

Awesome. :D

[Josh]

Personally, I was pretty shocked when I read that IE8 would render content per present and past IE rendering methods vs newer, more compliant methods. But this makes more sense. I do think it's important to be backwards compatible, especially in this case where it will give the designers/developers time to get into older projects and bring them up to speed vs having them breaking because MS *FINALLY* felt that it was important to play nice with the rest of the world.

[gigapixels Veteran]

(Y)(Y)

And now it's up to the developer to use the old IE (anti-)standards if they want to. That is the best part. Usually, being Microsoft, they would leave an option that up to the end-user, but they've put that power in the right hands and have made an excellent move.

[DreadBoat89]

good move

[tunafish]

One would hope that with IE8 it would atleast pass most of ACID3 test but i think thats pushing it a bit.

All i want to be able to do is design a site in say FF and have it show up the same in IE

[osirisX]

Good to hear.

[SidVicious]

Now the IE haters will say: "bleh, it doesn't pass Acid3, only Acid2"

[SharpGreen]

Now the IE haters will say: "bleh, it doesn't pass Acid3, only Acid2"

Probably not, as currently no browsers pass Acid3.

[tunafish]

Makes me wonder how they can do a browser test if nothing passes the test to see if it's ment to work the way the test says etc.

Anyway im glad to see IE8 is getting somewhere. I only hope they continue the DEV of it

[Veedems Veteran]

Kind of cool to know they are listening to the community.

[L3thal Veteran]

Kind of cool to know they are listening to the community.

Looks like they have gone that way recently.

[Rigby]

Good, I thought the idea of making compliant pages have a special meta tag to be rendered properly in IE8 was beyond ridiculous.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

eh. cool.

[alpha_omega]

I guess the EU should fine them more often :p

[Mathachew Veteran]

Awesome, keep it up MS.

[ViperAFK]

Great decision, this will really help web standards.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Well, IE has been a disaster for years so it's about time they did something. Hopefully developers will be able to focus on designing websites instead of finding workarounds for everything - it took a huge amount of effort to design my website properly for all browsers, mainly due to IE.

[IceDogg]

Looks like they have gone that way recently.

I agree and it's about time.

[Bryan000]

unlikley maybe, but the ie team still has time to get acid 3 to pass! i wish they would. they've long been behind in the game. this is a great time to catch up.

Otherwise, around the time ie8 is final, we'll have (at least) preview versions of firefox/opera/safari that pass or nearly pass acid 3, so they'll still be a bottleneck for developers looking to use the latest standards.

[Lewism]

Wow, they really want to hurt FF with this release. I mean, maybe I will switch back with this announcement.

[Marshalus Veteran]

Holy crap.

Wow, they really want to hurt FF with this release. I mean, maybe I will switch back with this announcement.

If they put in an integrated spellchecker, I might.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Wow, this is excellent news. (Y)

unlikley maybe, but the ie team still has time to get acid 3 to pass! i wish they would. they've long been behind in the game. this is a great time to catch up.

Otherwise, around the time ie8 is final, we'll have (at least) preview versions of firefox/opera/safari that pass or nearly pass acid 3, so they'll still be a bottleneck for developers looking to use the latest standards.

Acid3 isn't finished yet, It can wait for IE9.

Edit: Apparently Acid3 got finished today :p

Edited March 4, 2008 by The_Decryptor

[Unto Darkness]

Internet Explorer back on track!

[shakey_snake]

Now the IE haters will say: "bleh, it doesn't pass Acid3, only Acid2"

No, but they can still grovel about all the IE users that won't have upgraded 5 years from now. :p