Microsoft Insists IE7 is Standards Compliant

ReadWriteWeb writes "Microsoft's Chris Wilson, the Group Program Manager for IE addresses the issue of whether IE7 is CSS and Web standards compliant. Last week a Slashdot post claimed that IE7 was basically non-compliant with CSS standards. But Chris Wilson says that isn't true and that standards improvements is a big part of IE7. He admits that there were a ton of bugs from IE6 that have caused web developers a lot of pain, but says that IE7 will address those and be standards compliant. He goes as far to say that IE7 supports Web standards even at the expense of more backwards compatibility."

Comments

Love the Clintonesque "define sex" attitude

[wazzzup]

...I think it's very difficult, if not impossible, to have an analysis of exactly where we are as a number with supporting or complying with CSS - given that there isn't an official test suite that exhaustively tests whether you comply with the standard or not.

...in terms of stating that we really do fully support the CSS 2.1 spec, it's hard to tell because there is a bias to any analysis. We're certainly somewhere between those two... I don't think we're at 90%, I think we're above 50% though - and again, it really depends on how you end up weighing things. The problem is, if I gave any number I'd really want to support how I came up with that number - and I don't have a great way to do that today.

What really gets me as a web developer is his "Standards? Define standards? We're just groping in the dark like everybody else." attitude. Safari, Opera and Firefox seem to be figuring it out okay. As a web developer, I can design a web page and have those three browsers look pretty much the same with only minor differences. Then I spend an inordinate amount of time figuring out how to hack it in IE.

I mean, what's so difficult about figuring out how compliant you are? Get a list of the CSS 2.1 spec and make a checklist out of it. "Child selectors, check. Pseudo selectors, check. Box model, check." Do the math - (IE7 CSS implementation/CSS spec)*100 = Percent compliant. Is it perfect? Probably not but it's a start for pete's sake.

Actually, I've given up wasting time on IE (including IE 7) and just run Dean Edward's IE7 script. It's just becoming less and less worth supporting IE down to the pixel. As web developers, we're tired and we've had enough. Don't expect us to jump for joy simply because you've begun making IE a little bit better toward standards. Nothing short of 90% compliance will be worthwhile. And if you get there, don't expect a big sloppy kiss from the web developer community either because it's been long overdue.

On the other hand, I welcome Microsoft's slide toward irrelevance and the inevitable renaissance of a non-microsoft controlled web. So...I guess keep up the good work Chris!