14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is applauding the latest iteration of Internet Explorer, a browser once under a barrage of criticism for its failure to play nice with open standards, because it manages to offer a complete implementation of CSS 2.1, the first product in the industry to do so, leaving rivals in the dust. Jason Upton, test manager, Internet Explorer, characterized Internet Explorer 8 RTW as a leap forward in support for web standards, and pointed to the successor of IE7 as the only browser in 100% compliance with the current test suite for CSS 2.1. At the end of the past week, Microsoft submitted additional test cases to the CSS 2.1 test suite.
“The IE Team [submitted] 196 new test cases to the CSS 2.1 Working Group for inclusion into the CSS 2.1 test suite,” Upton added. “These cases were developed since IE8 RC. This brings Microsoft’s contribution to the CSS 2.1 Test Suite to 7201 tests. IE8 passes all of these tests today as well as the rest of the tests in the current official CSS 2.1 test suite. We’re working closely with the CSS working group to include the new tests in the official test suite.”
Last week Microsoft made available for download the gold version of Internet Explorer 8. IE8 RTW is up for grabs for Windows XP, including SP3, Windows Vista RTM/SP1, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Launched on March 19, 2009, Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft delivering on its promise that web developers will be able to build content just once and have it run seamlessly in every browser. At the same time, the software giant made it clear that IE8 introduced support only for finalized standards, explaining why the browser continued, in some aspects, to be inferior to competitors.
“The only way to know if a browser has correctly implemented a specification is to develop a comprehensive set of tests for the specification. Those tests are the best reference for how a browser will behave when you’re writing a web page,” Upton said. “Encourage other browser vendors to contribute to the W3C’s CSS 2.1 test suite so those tests may be used by any browser under the W3C’s license. Only then will those tests broadly benefit web developers.”
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).