First Look At the ACID3 Browser Test
ddanier writes "Now that all major browsers have mastered the ACID2 test (at least in some preview versions), work on ACID3 has begun. The new test will focus on ECMAScript, DOM Level 3, Media Queries, and data: URLs. 100 tests will be put into functions each returning either true or false depending on the result of the test. The current preview of ACID3 is still missing 16 tests."
Something I always wanted to know (applies to the older Acid tests, too): how do they render the reference image? Is someone creating them by hand? How do we know no mistake was made when creating the reference image?
We write those tests too, they're called test suites and if you look at my site you'll find literally hundreds if not thousands of them:
http://hixie.ch/tests/adhoc/
The Acid tests are easier for the less technically inclined to get a hold of. In practice, the browser vendors take Acid tests and turn them into small tests of the kind you describe before fixing them. For Acid2, I was the one who did a number of those small tests for Opera (I worked for Opera at the time) -- you can see them here:
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera001.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera002.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera003.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera004.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera005.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera006.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera007.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera008.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera009.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera010.html
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/opera011.html
They're not as exciting as the smiley face, so they don't get the media's attention in the same way.