IE8 RC1 Has the Most Complete CSS 2.1 Implementation in the Industry

With the advent of Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft indicated a strong commitment to interoperability with modern web standards. Following the availability of Release Candidate 1 for IE8, the Redmond company is pointing to its next iteration of the IE browser as having the most complete implementation of the CSS 2.1 specification out of all browsers on the market today. Jason Upton, test manager – Internet Explorer, revealed that, in addition to making IE8 (as of the RC1 phase) implementation complete for CSS 2.1, Microsoft has also put together a consistent volume of tests for the specification, which it shared with the CSS 2.1 Working Group.

“The IE Team submitted 3784 new test cases to the CSS 2.1 Working Group for inclusion into the CSS 2.1 test suite. These cases were developed since IE8 Beta 2. This brings Microsoft’s contribution to the CSS 2.1 Test Suite to 7005 tests. IE8 RC1 passes all of these tests today. All but 52 of these cases also pass in at least one other major browser. We’re working closely with the CSS working group to swiftly include these in the official test suite,” Upton stated.

According to Upton, the final critical element designed to guarantee web layout interoperability involves the browser actually passing the tests. Microsoft emphasized the fact that Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 (RC) is the first browser capable of rising up to the interoperability requirements in the 2.1 specification. Furthermore, the software giant claims that IE8 RC1 passes all the pragmatic “tests” the company was able to find across the web. By pragmatic tests Upton designated test scenarios that have, in Microsoft’s perspective, real-world situations involving inconsistencies across major browsers.

“It’s important that the spec, the browser, and the tests all agree on a behavior. This is when web developers really win. While developing these test cases, we found instances where all other browsers implemented something a specific way. That syntax pattern was in pages all over the web, creating a broad dependency on that behavior. In those cases, we proposed a change to the spec and developed an associated test case to ensure the web continues to work and browsers can implement the spec as written. We sincerely hope this helps the committee finish the 2.1 spec and move it into the Recommendation phase,” Upton stated.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is available for download here.