Jumping Through Hoops » Microsoft http://blog.jameshiggs.com James Higgs's Blog Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:46:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Microsoft screw the pooch again http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/03/04/microsoft-screw-the-pooch-again/ http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/03/04/microsoft-screw-the-pooch-again/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:51:49 +0000 higgis http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/03/04/microsoft-screw-the-pooch-again/ Oh dear. It looked for a while as though Microsoft was going to make the right decision on compatibility vs. standards compliance in IE8. But they’ve reversed their decision now. Why? The Microsoft Interoperability Principles.

I pointed out the reasons that their original approach was the right one a few weeks ago.

So, once again, a press release trumps common sense. Idiots.

]]> http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/03/04/microsoft-screw-the-pooch-again/feed/ 1 Microsoft finally gets the message on browser compatibility http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/01/22/microsoft-finally-gets-the-message-on-browser-compatibility/ http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/01/22/microsoft-finally-gets-the-message-on-browser-compatibility/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:38:14 +0000 higgis http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2008/01/22/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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