Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft released IE8 Beta 1 yesterday. Lao liu immediately downloads and installs the message. I did not write any articles, for two reasons. First, there have been a lot of articles about IE8, and some people have been "peeking" since a few days ago. Second, they have never used it and have nothing to say.

This morning, I saw a discussion on Internet Explorer 8 held by Teacher Liu Jiang at the Turing forum. I also told me about the Chat History he had discussed with others. So I want to share some of my views.

The biggest feature of IE8 is that it is about to fully support Web standards and claim to have passed Acid2 and Acid3 tests. Old Liu doesn't care about this. He just wants to know that the websites I write and the websites I often go to can be viewed using IE8?

After IE8 is installed, the first thing to do is to read all the websites that you will visit at ordinary times to see what is different. The result is disappointing-I don't know whether I have installed the latest browser or an outdated antique browser. In short, the page is messy.

Fortunately, IE8 provides an "Emulate IE7" button. After the installation is complete, IE8 will navigate to Microsoft's IE8 site, with an image arrow clearly pointing out the button position. I clicked on like a treasure. The result of IE8 is that you must close all IE Windows and re-open them to enter the IE7 compatibility mode. What is the difference between this and "Please restart your computer to complete the installation.

Well, the above is a complaint. Here is the song.

Another way that IE8 gives me is fast. And stability. In IE7, if more tabs are opened, the response will be slow, and some websites with relatively fierce Ajax usage will often fail to create new windows in my system (the specific manifestation is, the menu cannot be displayed, the new program cannot be opened, and the dialog box cannot be displayed-all these should be created using CreateWindow ). This is not the case during the 24 hours when IE8 is used.

Another new feature in IE8 is "Activities", which is similar to the "xx" feature provided by some rogue software in the past (such as Word search and word translation. However, this Activities is only an extension of the right-click menu. The speed is still acceptable, because after the word is selected, a shortcut menu is displayed instead of an operation immediately. (For the development of Activities, friends of nfa2dfa in the garden have already introduced this article in IE8 Activities early adopters. [See region.)

Next is "I see ".

Some people have mentioned that Microsoft's full support for Web standards in IE8 is "forced ". Old Liu believes this idea. So who is "forced? It must not be your mother or mother, nor any other manufacturer. Is a "Developer ".

Why do developers unite to force Microsoft to implement standards? Because they are too tired, they need to consider too many browsers when writing a website. Therefore, they naively believe that as long as the browser complies with the standards, it can be "standard-oriented" rather than "browser-oriented" during development. However, the emergence of IE8 tells us heavily-you are wrong.

IE8 does not bring us a bright future for the unification of Web development. On the contrary, in the short term, it will also increase the burden on developers-sorry, there is another completely different browser.

I think that's why Microsoft wants to add an "Emulate IE7" button in IE8. However, this button is purely chicken. To switch to the IE7 compatibility mode (including switching back), you must restart the browser. Therefore, Liu predicted that for a long time after IE8 was officially launched, most users will always enable the IE7 compatibility mode and use IE8 as a "better IE7.

Of course, this is only Beta1. I think Microsoft will change the mode switch to the form without restarting in the official version. Otherwise, the Web standard will be virtually empty. Whether or not the Web standards can be vigorously implemented and the transition from non-standard to standard is successful depends entirely on whether the browser needs to be restarted after the small "Emulate IE7" button is pressed.

Many people still think that this is a good start. If you endure it for a while, the situation will be better (didn't you say it before, "in the short term "). But Liu still has to fight you relentlessly. the browser war has just begun to enter the climax.

When talking about cross-browser website development, people's eyes are more focused on CSS. It is generally believed that as long as CSS is cross-browser, the website will also be cross-browser. As a result, some exquisite css hack is widely spread among developers. But now, although it seems that all these css hack will be ineffective (in fact, it will not expire, but it will be more), everyone's psychology is easy, because our CSS can be written more elegantly, you don't have to consider cross-browser (Do you really have to think about it ?).

No matter whether the CSS front has been turned off for peace or has been getting worse, we can all breathe a sigh of relief-if it is turned off, we can write CSS more easily and then play it, not afraid. We already have a very mature css hack. Just make a few changes.

But the most terrible thing is-from the chat record disclosed by Mr. Liu Jiang to the Turing club-the new battlefield is about to expand in the JS field. Mozilla and Adobe dominate JS2, while JS2 is based on ECMAScript4, which inevitably leads JavaScript to the "heavyweight" field. In addition, Adobe also wants to add many of the features in ActionScript to JS. (I remember seeing reports earlier that some people opposed Microsoft's OOXML because Microsoft has added too many special features to it, which is ironic .) Microsoft's consistent style is to lower the development threshold, and the characteristics of JS are also low. So it seems that Microsoft will not easily compromise in this first world war, so we can think that the CSS war will continue, and the JS war will start again.

What else will be there in the future? DOM and ActiveX are all sensitive areas. If it is hard to say, everyone will fight again one day. When multiple fronts are fully opened, it is the climax of the Web world war.

But don't be nervous. Let these vendors fight for it. Although we have never been better off because of IE8, we will not be upset by this war. Liu believes that the following trends will emerge in Web development in the future.

First, Web applications are polarized. Some low-end development teams, such as individuals, small studios, and small companies, may adopt a "downgrade" strategy, that is, to remove the dazzling but not practical characteristics of today's Web2.0 tide, with the widely supported HTML, CSS, and JS features, developers can easily develop simple but highly functional references. However, some high-end development teams, such as relatively mature large Internet enterprises, will face team differentiation, there are dedicated teams for Functional Development, and dedicated teams for cross-browser and performance tuning.

Second, the entire Internet industry is more meticulous. Some teams of large companies and many open-source organizations will focus on cross-browser work and launch more mature cross-browser components or solutions. The "low-end development team" mentioned above can use these components or solutions for free or at a low price. In fact, many companies and organizations have already begun to do this, and there are many mature cross-browser js libraries in the market. But in the future, this field will become more dazzling.