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A First Look At Internet Explorer 8 RC1

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-lookit-that dept.

bogaboga writes "TG Daily reports that Microsoft quietly released the first update to its IE8 beta 2 to its closest partners last week. This new version only scores a dismal 12/100 on the Acid 3 test, though the score improves significantly if one leaves the [browser] window open for at least a minute. It is marked as 'Release Candidate 1.'"

5 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Damn, did I really not know? by will_die · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Microsoft speak a RC is a feature complete product, parts are still buggy but the capabilities are in, they still reservice the right to add features but will not remove them.
    Now that is not to say that things still will not change for instance with the release of parts of Office 2007 some products would work in the RC phase on Windows 2000 but come release they stopped working. However at that phase you can usally start developing for the new product and it will work on the release with at most minor changes.

  2. Even simple HTML can crash IE8 by VJTod · · Score: 5, Informative

    This simple HTML still crashes Beta2.  It will probably still crash the RTM.  This was a trick I found back in 2002.  I had reported it somewhere, but obviously nowhere important.

    <table>
    <tr>
    <td><div style="width:100%;height:100%"/></td>
    <td>
    <div>
    <span style="height:100%;width:50%">></td>
    <span style="height:100%;width:50%">></td>
    </div>
    </td>
    <td><div style="width:100%;height:100%"/></td>
    </tr>
    </table>

    1. Re:Even simple HTML can crash IE8 by twistah · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is a highly ignorant comment. A browser should never crash due to poorly written HTML, or due to anything. From the security angle, this is at least a DoS, but likely something more. Take a look at the IE7 0-day which is affecting millions of users. It is not a buffer overflow; it's a simple crash. However, because of JavaScript, one is able to manipulate ("spray") the heap enough to a point where even a simple crash can be used for code execution. ANY crash in a browser should be taken seriously.

  3. Re:Why It Takes an Extra Minute by sexconker · · Score: 5, Informative

    You COULDN'T care less.
    You could not care any less, because you absolutely do not care.

    If you COULD care less, then you care some non-minimal amount.

  4. Re:Not following standards costs us by jc364 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, IE 8 passes the Acid 2 test (yes, they are last, but its an improvement). Not to mention that Microsoft contributed 2524 test cases to the CSS 2.1 test suite. I'm a web developer, and I know the horrors of developing for multiple browsers (especially IE), but I have to give Microsoft some credit for their interest in standards in this coming IE version.

    Also, the acid tests are just one indicator of how well a browser does standards. To make it the defining standards test would not be completely fair. More info on that here.