14 DAY TRIAL // One year after the release to web of Internet Explorer 8, its successor, Internet Explorer 9 is bound to get some time in the spotlight. And there will be no better occasion than Microsoft’s web-centric MIX 2010 conference. Of course, the Redmond company hasn’t confirmed any sort of official details as of yet, and don’t expect it do so either, at least not in the immediate future. However, based on the traditional, intimate relationship between MIX and IE, the three-day conference between March 15-17th, 2010, in Las Vegas, will also reveal additional details about IE9.
So far, there is extremely little information on MIX 10 available for the public. Only a few speakers have been announced, and Microsoft published just a small number of session synopsis for events scheduled at the conference. At the time of this article, just days after the software giant gave green light to the registration for MIX 10, the heavyweight keynote speakers have yet to be announced.
Still, already, one workshop points out the fact that Microsoft might be gearing up to release additional details on IE9. “HTML5 Now: The Future of Web Markup Today” will be presented by Molly E. Holzschlag, former Group Lead for WaSP and an expert involved with W3C, and a Microsoft collaborator on the issues of web standards interoperability since early 2007.
“This full-day workshop focuses on HTML5 and why it is becoming more important to understand, and even put to use. As the open standard for Web applications, HTML5 takes markup to a new level, requiring Web developers and designers to re-examine the way they've worked in the past, and will be working in days and months to come,” reads an excerpt of the workshop’s description.
The promise from Microsoft is that “Molly E. Holzschlag, Web Standards advocate, evangelist, and developer relations team member at Opera Software, (…) will help demystify HTML5 as well as provide actual insight into how to begin using aspects of the language today.”
It’s extremely hard to think that Microsoft will talk HTML5 and will not mention Internet Explorer 9 at all. At the Professional Developers Conference 2009 in Los Angeles in mid-November, the software giant shared the first details on IE9, promising increased modern web standards interoperability, in addition to hardware acceleration and boosted JavaScript performance. Of course, a critical aspect of taking web standards interoperability to the next level is embracing HTML5, a move which Microsoft dodged with Internet Explorer 8, arguing that, at the time, the specification was not finalized. From the details shared the past month, it is clear that the company is attempting to right its wrongs, and to race rival browsers in terms of JavaScript performance, but also tailor the next iteration of its browser to HTML5, after all, the software giant did promise a better Acid3 Test score.
“The morning portion of the workshop will focus on: - The history and evolution of markup - Why XHTML has been set aside in favor of HTML5 - What role HTML5 plays in the role of sites and applications - Demystifying aspects of HTML5 and clarifying its purpose and usage - Providing insight into both the HTML and XML notation methods in HTML5 - A range of demos of HTML5 in action in a variety of Web browsers The afternoon portion of the workshop will cover: - New elements in HTML5 and how to use them in current sites and applications - Web forms 2.0 - an overview of the elements, attributes and validation features that Web Forms 2.0, part of the HTML specification, provides - A look at a range of HTML5 APIs and scripting access - HTML5 and Accessibility - When to consider using features of HTML5 in current development of sites and applications,” read additional details from Holzschlag’s workshop.
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).