Internet Explorer 8 Now Available

IE 8 is available for download.

Per ZDNet, "Microsoft says that the new Internet Explorer 8 browser... is faster, more secure, and easier to use. It also adds a new private browsing feature."

Some of the more interesting features IE8 promises are compiled below.

For Users:

• Web slicing that lets you easily track a frequently-used site for updates.
• Compatibility view to help "adjust" the layouts designed for "older browsers" -- it disappears as an option if the page has been "updated for IE8". Of course, for me, this begs the question -- just how differently will IE8 "render" various CSS, that it will need this tool to compensate for hacks often used to accommodate previous versions of IE or maybe other browsers?
• Accelerators, to reduce the additional pages and typing you tend to use to perform standard functions on data, like mapping directions to an address, translating a foreign word, finding a product on eBay, or getting a definition. A nice subfeature here is that it's even updatable to use vendors other than Microsoft and its partners.

For Developers:

• CSS table layout support -- which should allow you to get table-style layouts without using HTML tables.
• Support for the :focus pseudo class
• Various tools for developers
  

Also, for developers, Microsoft has already published some tips on taking advantage of changes in IE8, as well as short-term and long-term approaches to making your pages more IE8-compliant.

I'm curious to see how this notably different version of Internet Explorer changes the way we surf and develop. The browser wars continue -- but instead of coming out with products that result in more variation in the rendering, and more problems for developers and users, the new competition seems to focus more on features to beat the other guy. And that looks promising for the rest of us.

On the Road,
Eric J. Reid

W3C on HTML 5

This month the W3C published info on the HTML 5, which is still a working draft of the latest version of HTML. According to Justin James, "The last round of Web browsers already included many of the HTML 5 features, and a number of Web sites use HTML 5 code". Changes may be coming down the highway after years of talking about it.

Note that HTML 5 is intended to replace XHTML (which is itself the XML-ized, later version of the HTML 4 family.) 

Some other interesting points (and a few big changes) include:

• It's designed to be backwards compatible. It will have separate requirements for authors (writers of the code) versus user agents (browsers, screen readers, etc). This is hoped to end the use of "deprecated" elements, as authors won't be able to use them in HTML 5, even though browsers will probably always support them so older code doesn't simply cease to function. Authors will have their rules; browsers will have different, broader ones.
• "HTML 5 specification will not be considered finished before there are at least two complete implementations of the specification". The idea is to make sure that coders and browsers are "following the program" as well as putting forth valuable feedback before the new version is embraced as complete.
• "New content model concepts (replacing HTML 4's block and inline concepts)". Gasp. Seriously. This would be a big departure from how HTML content has been coded.
• "The use of the DOM as a basis for defining the language" -- something previously synonymous with JavaScript, not HTML.
• The DTD will be shortened because it will not need to be specified in SGML. Removing that requirement will end the need for the much longer doctypes in previous versions of HTML.
• There will be a nav tag, intended just for navigation sections.
• There will be new input types for forms, including date/time and color options.
• Frames are finally removed from HTML. (I can't help but offer a personal hooray.)
  

Stay tuned for further updates... Exciting stuff for web designers and their users!

On the Road,
Eric J. Reid