“ Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice. Think that judgment is too harsh? Ask the security experts at Google, Adobe, and dozens of other large corporations that are cleaning up the mess from a wave of targeted attacks that allowed source code and confidential data to fall into the hands of well-organized intruders. The entry point? According to Microsoft, it’s IE6.
“ Microsoft has no choice but to make a leap of development faith, by abandoning the IE rendering engine and releasing new WebKit-based desktop and mobile browsers. IE is a dead platform.
I have added some support for Internet Explorer 8 on my site, as it was looking a bit of a mess before.
I refuse to support the horrible messes that are older versions of Internet Explorer though, so if you’re still on IE6 or IE7, I urge you to update your browser (Safari is a good choice, or Firefox).
Please note that this is my own personal view and does not reflect the views of Rubious.
Introducing Google Chrome Frame: ”an early-stage open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer.”
“ A free JavaScript library for creating gorgeous rounded corners for HTML block elements i.e. DIVs. Supports anti-aliasing, borders and background images.
The wonderful little detail not mentioned at all here is that because Vista sucked so many people are still using Windows XP, which is 8 years old, and yes, comes…
“ If Daring Fireball looks goofy in your browser, you’re likely using a shitty browser that doesn’t support web standards. Internet Explorer, I’m looking in your direction. If you complain about this, I will laugh at you, because I do not care. If, however, you are using a modern, standards-compliant browser and have trouble viewing or reading Daring Fireball, please do let me know.
Once again, Internet Explorer causes problems. This time with the adoption of HTML5.
HTML5 is ready to use today. There is very little stopping you from using HTML5 for all new websites you code. All except for one small problem: Internet Explorer needs a kick up the butt to render your code properly. It needs something called the HTML5 javascript shiv.
Internet Explorer, in its infinite wisdom, does not allow you to style an element that it does not recognise. This is not very future-proof, and causes problems as HTML5 adds a lot of new elements. The only way to get around this is to use javascript to force Internet Explorer to recognise the new elements. Basically, the code looks like this:
document.createElement("section")
This is repeated for all the new elements, inserted into a browser-sniffing conditional and minified for your downloading convenience. Fixed!
Of course, there will be those without javascript enabled, and the best we can do for them is this:
<!--[if IE]>
<noscript>
<p>You need to enable javascript
in your browser to view this website.</p>
</noscript>
<![endif]-->
Is this useful for the viewer? No, they probably do not know what javascript is, or whether this message can be trusted—and they should not be expected to. But it is necessary. Will this be fixed in future versions of Internet Explorer? I certainly hope so, but then it will be decades before everybody has switched to that new version - just take a look at how many people are still using Internet Explorer 6.
There has never been more reason to dump Internet Explorer and get one of the better, free alternatives:
“ We’ve sputtered on with the dead weight of IE6 since 2001, but we’re just now reaching a breaking point, and companies are starting to feel it. YouTube and Digg clearly believe that it’s not in their best interests to continue supporting the outdated browser and thus have put the word out about their plans to phase out support. More and more companies will take their lead as it becomes harder and harder to justify the cost of keeping a site running correctly in Microsoft’s old browser.
