What's New in IE9

I have been developing Websites since html was developed by now, but one of the main issues for me in every new IE version was whether or not the developers at Microsoft would finally adapt to all the standards, the w3c sets. Again, I am really anxiously looking forward, as the last couple of IE versions where really a step forward. But yet I am skeptical. I somehow don’t really believe in the fact that Microsoft will one day deliver a Browser which doesn’t need a special treatment in terms of functionality and fully featured CSS compatibility like e.g. Mozilla Browsers do.

I still have hope though!

Cyrus
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The biggest fan boy in this article is the author. There’s not a token negative to give the illusion of balance. We all know standards support is the biggest issue for any browser and we all know the track record MSIE has. Given that track record I’m impressed how optimistic some of these posters are. I’m with Cyrus, I’ll continue to hope, but realistically the most I expect is for IE9 to at least start to be less prominent on my list of problems. The number of hours I’ve given over the years to specific support for IE hurts to think about.

One thing IE9 is trailing with is in implementing the File API. Specifically the lack of support for <input type="file" multiple> is very disappointing. Being able to select multiple files for upload is such a basic and important feature, I’m really surprised they decided to skip it (again).

That said, Opera is still ignoring this too and so for both these browsers ugly solutions (e.g. Flash) are required to avoid users having to click a “Browse” button for every file to upload.

HTML 5 itself is still a work in progress, Raffles. Support can only truly come when it is finish. At least Microsoft is writing test cases for HTML 5 instead of blinding adding support in a rush job. That is the last thing we need. The closer HTML 5 is actually finished and there are test cases can we then determine a baseline of support level. We actually now have an almost complete CSS 2.1 test case to test against now thinks to Microsoft while they were working on IE 8. There is more value in those test cases then the browser itself.

If you are wanting to get HTML 5 as good as it can be then start helping! The W3C needs help from people to write test cases for HTML 5 even CSS 3. At the moment they only have 212 test cases for HTML 5 which is not enough. They have the current test results here: http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm

Cool, look forward to the next article.

Yeah, it’s certainly in line with the “HTML5 for web applications” movement.
I prefer Firefox’ app tabs though.

Thanks all the same, but I’m no-one’s fanboy. I’m also not interested in tokenism. I’ve been wrestling with IE - and all the other browsers - since I started building sites for clients in the mid-90s. What I find with IE9 is I have to wrestle less. This article is not meant to be a complete review of every aspect of IE9. It’s a quick grab of the some of the more interesting developments. Yes, I focused on the positive, because that’s what I thought was interesting. I don’t think you’d have to look too hard to find someone who wants to write only about the negative aspects.

Just for the record, I don’t think IE9 is perfect, and I don’t think MS does either. The perfect browser hasn’t been developed. Yet.

I honestly don’t expect MS to ever take a bleeding edge lead in something like this again. They got burned by doing this with IE 3 & 4, then the way they implemented the feature was changed in the spec causing them to get blamed for having it “wrong” by IE 6. So I’ll be surprised if anything goes into IE before any other browser unless it isn’t something that the web developer doesn’t directly touch - like hardware acceleration of graphics.

That makes perfect sense to me, but IE9 is already implementing lots of HTML5 things, but not the multiple file upload facility, which is what I’m disappointed by. That said, what you say about not rushing things could not be more sensible - the last thing we want is another browser war, and I think given the pace of development nowadays, browser vendors are doing remarkably well at behaving themselves and doing things for the common good.

Thanks for the link to the HTML5 test cases. I might submit one I’m working on.

Good point. I suppose MS are staying as close to the edge as they can without taking any major risks, but they have to be careful not to be too cautious, especially considering how long it takes for W3C working drafts (which seem to be standardsy enough for Mozilla/Webkit) to become recommendations.

I think IE9 will deliver superior performance and a rich browsing experience with features like Site Pinning and more. Just read on this post on What’s new in IE9?

… and yet, it’s just an other Browser, where I bet that as a developer you again need special hacks, just to view the websites normally. I think all the features might be ok, but some responses to this just sound too ecstatic for me…

To be fair they haven’t been in a position to take risks - they’ve been following rather than leading. But when they’ve led they have been a help. CSS was their proposal to the W3C if I recall correctly, and I know for certain they coined XMLHTTPRequest.

And there are areas to innovate. One thing I would kill for that Google briefly tried with Gears is an onDrop event that fires when a file object is dragged onto a spot on the window and dropped. It would be a joy if I could monitor upload progress from javascript and have the script behave with a true progress bar. I could go on about this for awhile.

The manufacturer convention in css ( -moz, -webkit and now -ms for IE 9 ) gives them some flexibility to experiment that wasn’t present in the old days. It remains to be seen if they’ll do this.

Already part of HTML5.

Until the recommendation of HTML is finalized, the correct term is “already proposed for HTML 5.” There is no guarantee it will become a part of the spec. In any event, no browser has these behaviors yet, spec or not.

This is what made my eyes cross. Play nice, guys.

No, but Tantek Celik was instrumental in implementing CSS for the masses in his design of IE 5 for the Mac (the Tasman engine was, at the time, the best at rendering CSS).

I do apologies to all the anal retentive out there for my incorrect statements around the nature of the HTML specification.

Firefox and Chrome have some support for the File API - Google it “Michael Morris” if that really is your real name.

:nono: Is that called for?

I’ll take your rude word for it that chrome and firefox have pieces of the File API in place. Getting back to my original point and the topic of the thread, Microsoft is unlikely to implement any of this until it is more finalized.

The whole reason for the change in the spec process is that, once you start implementation some or all of the spec may turn out to be unworkable. This is why CSS had to be revised from 2.0 to 2.1. The W3C has become a bit gunshy about finalizing things because CSS 2.0 burned them so badly. By not finalizing the spec they leave room for it to be changed if it becomes necessary.

While it’s fun to play with these things before they are finalized, I’d hardly want to invest an inordinate amount of time with them in the event that they get changed.

Here is a demo of some bits of the File API in action (not by me, I might add), including all the stuff on your wishlist for uploads: http://valums.com/ajax-upload/

Also in Gmail, you can drag and drop attachments into a message straight from your desktop, with monitoring of progress.

Although what Mark said was uncalled for, you did confidently say something that turned out to be completely false, Michael. :wink:

No, it wasn’t called for - but, I wasn’t entirely serious either :wink:

I think the time to start using the features is now.
You were the one saying these would be awesome features to see in browsers - they are, so start using them for those that support them, just allow for fallbacks.

It’s the same for all of the HTML5 / CSS3 stuff. Use what you can,

Microsoft had nothing to do with creating CSS.

It doesn’t. It fails. And it’s not even out for six more months.

btw, that “internet beautiful” site of Microsoft’s had to settle with Andy Clarke and his “For A Beautiful Web” site. Don’t know the terms or conditions but Andy was a bit tiffed about it.