IE8 uses multiple compatibility mode to display Web pages normally

IE8 will have multiple compatibility modes. IE platform architect Chris Wilson wrote in his blog that the IE platform's job is to provide interoperability (Web pages work in different browsers) and backward compatibility (compatible with previous versions of IE browsers). If you want IE8 to continue to be compatible with the current billions of web pages, and also meet the goal of making the next billions of web pages easier to develop, IE8 will use a different pattern to display the pages.

In the past 6 major versions of IE browser development, he said, using the "do not break the existing web (rules)" Guidelines, in IE6, they use the DOCTYPE switch to switch to different "mode" to ensure compatibility. In IE7, they have modified more parts of IE to make IE more compliant, especially with CSS compatibility.

A lot of people used to say that using IE6 browser to open some of the site will have a lot of problems, but with Firefox and Safari browser is normal, in the IE7 is displayed normal. In fact IE7 was released in 2006, and IE6 was released in 2001, ie in the development of the network standard is the standard. So, the exact meaning of the phrase "do not break the existing Web" is "do not change what a developer has already deployed to display a normal page in current IE" (of course, some criteria may not be deployed now, so don't expect anything to happen in the future).

So in IE8 browsers, the development group uses a variety of compatibility modes to be compatible with previous pages. The first two of these modes are:

"Quirks" mode, which is compatible with most current Web page content.

The "standards" mode, the "Standard mode", is compatible with what IE7 can display correctly.

The third model requires web developers to work with, and web developers need to add an additional meta tag to their web pages to identify their own pages to achieve IE8 best compatibility. It is reported that under "Standard mode", IE8 can pass very strict Acid2 page test.