IE10 Release Preview with Support for Stable W3C Draft Standards

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 browser included in the newly-launched Windows 8 Release Preview is meant to enable users to enjoy a more stable web, courtesy of support for various W3C draft standard features.

When planning the launch of this flavor of the application, Microsoft looked into the standards that it supports, and focused on those that offer the best experience.

Thus, the company reviewed W3C draft standards that are stable (which did not suffer major modifications or name changes recently, and are not planned for such transformation either).

Additionally, Microsoft took into consideration standards that are supported by at least two other browsers, and which also offer interoperability across these browsers.

Another important aspect for the company was for these standards to already be used on the web, including in their unprefixed form.

W3C draft standards supported by IE10 also need to have reached Candidate Recommendation since Windows 8 Consumer Preview, or are expected to become Candidate Recommendations in 2012.

At the moment, IE10 supports a series of standards (in their unprefixed form) that match these criteria, including:

- Gradients (CSS Image Values and Replaced Content)
- CSS Animations
- CSS Transitions
- CSS Transforms
- font-feature-settings property (CSS Fonts)
- Indexed Database API
- Timing control for script-based animations (requestAnimationFrame)

Moreover, Microsoft notes that the browser offers support for these standards in their vendor-prefixed form using the Microsoft vendor prefixes (‑ms‑/ms), so that it would provide compatibility with sites and apps developed using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Along with these standards, IE10 arrives with support for a series of W3C draft standards in vendor-prefixed form, since Microsoft considers that they do not meet the criteria listed above.

These standards are: CSS Flexible Box Layout, CSS Grid Layout, CSS Regions, CSS Exclusions and Shapes, and CSS Device Adaptation. Users and developers interested in learning more on the matter should have a look at this post on MSDN.

You can download Windows 8 Release Preview Build 8400 from Softpedia via this link.