Categories
Browsers

IE8 Beta 2: first experiences

My first experiences with IE8 beta 2 have been mixed. On the one hand, I like the fact that compatibility mode no longer requires restarting the browser. However, I’ve found it virtually impossible to tell when I have compatibility mode turned on or off. I’ve also found that once turned on, you do have to reload a page in order to turn it off again, because the button disappears.

Sam Ruby wrote about an improved namespace blurb that appeared about IE8 at a Microsoft site, which has since disappeared. In the post, Sam also mentioned that IE8 no longer supports CSS for elements it doesn’t recognize, also detailed in a bug Anne van Kesteren linked in comments.

I went to check out the bug at Microsoft’s LiveConnect with IE8 beta 2, but received an error in the page that I don’t have permission to view the page. Puzzled, I also noticed that the page asked if I wanted to sign out of LiveConnect.

I had originally obtained a LiveConnect login in order to report bugs about Expression Media, which I was testing for my Painting the Web book. I figured that somehow my old account was interacting with the page in such a way as to make it inaccessible. I tried to delete cookies, in fact every kind of storage associated with IE8, but I still received the same page: I don’t have permission to access the bug, would I like to sign out of LiveConnect.

I looked more closely at the IE8 Delete options, and noticed that there’s another option I missed, Preserve favorite website data, with the following explanation:

Keep cookies and temporary files that enable your favorite websites to retain preferences and display faster.

This checkbox overrides the cookie deletion option when login information is stored. *I’m not sure if this option was present with IE8 beta 1, and I’m not sure I like it—one could easily think they’ve cleared all personal information out of a browser by deleting cookies, only to forget to uncheck the favorite site option, and leave critical logins still active.

Hakon Lie wrote about Microsoft’s back stepping on standards mode. Microsoft had originally stated it would support standards mode by default with the first beta of IE8. Now, it supports standards mode by default on the internet, but supports the old IE7 non-standards mode by default for intranet accesses. The setting can be changed via a menu option, but the problem with this approach is that if you develop a web site internally and it works one way, it may break or work oddly once published externally, unless you remember to turn standards mode on when developing the page internally. This adds all new meaning to the term, quirks mode, as this really is quirky behavior.

IE8 does implement the new JSON object, though be forewarned: it treats single quotes as second class citizens. In other words if your application returns strings delimited with single quotes, your application will fail. The JSON with single quotes still works with eval, though, so you could end up with breaking behavior when you switch from one to the other. To be honest, I find this to be a flaw with the JSON “standard”—either JSON is JavaScript Object Notation, or it’s not, and single quotes can delimit strings in JavaScript.

One new feature, or at least another feature I don’t remember from IE8 beta 1 is that when you encounter a runtime error in JavaScript, IE8 now pops up a window with a note about a runtime error, and asks if you wish to debug it. I imagine this will only appear if you have developer tools enabled. The script debugger included with IE8 in beta 1 is still available in beta 2, and is one really nice feature in IE8.

Less nice, though, is Microsoft’s non-support for DOM Level 2 event handling. There’s also no need to go into details about how the browser doesn’t support XHTML and SVG and MathML—Microsoft will never support XHTML, which should be a disappointing given now. In fact, it’s unlikely Microsoft will ever support SVG, even if this gets included in HTML5. Some would say this will kill SVG. I disagree and believe that this will eventually kill IE. Not just the lack of SVG support: Microsoft’s refusal to deal effectively with the issue of XHTML support, DOM Level 2 event handling support, and so on. Too many gaping holes in standards support, and too little commitment on Microsoft’s part to truly be a standards-based browser.

On the other hand, IE8 does have improved support for CSS. It’s now about equivalent to Firefox 2 in CSS support.

Lastly, if you’re a Netflix Watch Now fan, be warned: IE8 beta 2 does not work with the Watch Now feature, no matter what mode you set. Do not install IE8 beta 2 if you use this feature.

All in all, beta 2 has the feel of being a rushed delivery. Not surprising when you consider beta 2 was released on the seventh anniversary of the release of IE6—a day some of us designated as IE6 EOL or Uninstall day.


*The Preserve favorite option is new with beta 2, but is not working as described. It’s preserving data for sites that are not on my favorites list. In addition, Microsoft puts its own sites on this list, automatically making data to them “saved” with this option.

Categories
Internet

Comcast adding caps

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

According to DSLReports, Comcast is instituting a cap on its broadband customers. The cap will be 250GB a month, with one “freebie” month, where you can go over this amount without repercussion.

As caps go, this is one of the more reasonable. However, I expect to see other broadband companies following suit since one of the major players has now made a cap move. Eventually, this will most likely end up in front of the FCC, Congress, or court, as these companies will be forced to provide detailed operation information in order to assess whether they really have a congestion problem, or if their actions are anti-trust. This will also lead to questions about how much these companies reinvest profits back into infrastructure.

I also don’t see how caps are going to overcome problems with congestion, because people could use most of their bandwidth allotment during peak times. Wasn’t that the purpose of caps? To reduce congestion?

Categories
Technology Web

How to Install IE8 beta 2: First, find chicken to sacrifice, wait till midnight

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I have Windows XP SP3 installed on my Dell I was therefore more than a little taken back about the instructions to follow to install IE8 beta 2:

  • Uninstall Windows XP SP3
  • Uninstall IE8 Beta1
  • Re- install Windows XP SP3
  • Install IE8 Beta2

If you don’t follow this path, you’ll have permanently installed IE8 on the machine. You know, you can’t make up stuff like this.

Categories
Technology

The Banana Test

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

From Chip’s Quips a test to see your programming language preference:

Here’s a quick and easy test to determine what programming language best suits your personality.

There’s a very tall palm tree, and four animals happen to pass by: a chimpanzee, a lion, a giraffe, and a squirrel.

They decide to have a competition to see who is the fastest one to get a banana off the tree.

Which one won? Think of your answer before you read on…

Actually, what you don’t see in the animal lineup that Sterling has provided, is a rhinoceros heading straight for the tree at full ramming speed. It skewers the lion with its horn, steps on and squishes the squirrel, pushes aside the giraffe, and knocks the chimp from the tree when it hits—the force of which also knocks the banana down.

Except that the rhino decided, right in the middle of its headlong run, that it really doesn’t like bananas. However, it had built up too much momentum to be able to stop in time to save the lion, the chimp, the squirrel, the giraffe, the banana, and the tree. Poor tree.

And that makes me JavaScript ECMAScript.

Categories
SVG

Planet SVG

I was asked for links to SVG resources, and my immediate thought was to look for a Planet SVG. Though I found a planetsvg.com, there’s no entry at the site, and I couldn’t find any elsewhere. I then decided to create a new Planet SVG, using Sam Ruby’s Venus adaption of the Planet software.

Of course, I use SVG in the background of the page, though I imagine most people would only be interested in the Atom-based syndication feed. I’ll play around with the design when I have more time, but for now, I just grabbed an old one that seemed to work.

I’ve populated the Planet with a few URLs, but I need more. Though there are quite a few people interested in SVG, I’m finding that most don’t seem to have a weblog. Or if they do, I can’t find it.

There is a weblog for the SVG Open conference next week, but the weblog doesn’t have any syndication feed I could find.

If you write about SVG, or have a weblogging category devoted to SVG, or vector graphics, or even the Canvas element, please email me your feed URL, or drop it into comments.