Microsoft finally gets the message on browser compatibility
When Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 they broke a huge number of sites. Why? They had tried to make IE7 standards-compatible, but had failed to understand how much work developers had had to go through to make their sites work in IE6 in the first place. There was a load of ‘best practice guidance’ guff around how to make your site work in IE7, but the upshot was what I called at the time ‘the browser tax’.
Finally, finally, finally, they seem to have understood the plight of the ordinary web developer. IE8 will work as IE7 unless explicitly told to behave with maximum standards compatibility.
This is what every web developer who understood the issues wanted them to do first time around. Chris Wilson describes it as a ‘painful and unexpected lesson’. Only because they weren’t listening properly.
In essence, Microsoft made this mess and they should let people decide when they’re ready to help them clean it up. It looks like that’s now going to be allowed to happen. About freaking time.
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