14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is offering details about the web standards supported in Internet Explorer via a set of documentation available free of charge through the Download Center.
Internet Explorer Standards Documentation is focused on final approved web standards supported by the company’s browser, and as such developers should not expect details related to technologies that have been embraced only in the upcoming Internet Explorer 9.
The documentation “does not restate variations, extensions and other details that are specific for each standard. This documentation details the variations and extensions from HTML 4.01, CSS 1.0, CSS 2.1, and other final approved web standards published by W3C (as “W3C Recommendations”), ECMA (as “Standards”), or ISO (as “International Standards”) as implemented by Internet Explorer,” the software giant explained.
While Internet Explorer is quite close to the Release Candidate development milestone, fact is that it will still be a while before the browser will reach RTW.
And in this regard, web developers will have to build their sites for older versions of IE, such as IE8, IE7 and IE6, which supported web standards differently and not necessarily to the same degree.
It’s critical for devs to be aware of the limitations of older IE flavors when producing new sites, in order to tailor content accordingly in order to make it render in all releases of Internet Explorer. The Internet Explorer Standards Documentation is an excellent place to start, in this context.
Internet Explorer 9 Beta was released in mid-September 2010 and continues to be available for download even at this point in time.
Users can get a taste of what the final release of IE9 has to offer, while developers can start building sites for the new browser.
Internet Explorer 9 RTW will be the most standards compatible version of IE yet, designed from the get-go to play nice with technologies such as HTML5, SVG, DOM, CSS3, etc.
With IE9, Microsoft’s promise to devs is that they will be able to write code once, and have it work seamlessly across all browsers, including IE rivals.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 7 (PP7) is available for download here.