Comments on: Zeldman Does the Wrong Thing With IE7

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:42:45 +0000

That’s why it’s beta software. Tread carefully.

By: Hugh Janus

Hugh Janus — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:36:28 +0000

Everyman’s complaint:
This fuciking browser literally crashed my system. I thought you were full of shit and I generally support MS, but it fucking crashed my sytem. Thank god Windows has a sytem restore option. What a nightmare.

By: Christian

Christian — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 20:40:09 +0000

I certainly understand the perspective of the Web Standards Project and absolutely support them in their efforts to advise (or nudge) Microsoft and others to get products out the door that implement standards correctly.

I guess the part that stuck with me was what seemed to be a recommendation to the general dev community to pitch in with IE7 beta testing (and not just those directly related or involved in the Web Standard Project) and it just seemed like an unfortunate way to donate ones time, what with no end to better charity work available (technical or otherwise).

Regardless, much thanks to you for DWWS and everything you’ve done for the community. I’ve certainly learned a great deal from your work and appreciate the effort.

By: zeldman

zeldman — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 18:24:43 +0000

I appreciate what you had to say. Actually I wasn’t worrying about incompatibilities between my site and IE7 (notice I didn’t change my site to “fix” the display in IE7). All I’m interested in is making sure that IE7 supports CSS correctly *and* doesn’t choke on hacks and filters the design community spent half a decade creating to compensate for standards compliance flaws in versions of IE prior to 7.

The second part of your essay suggested that it’s wrong to help Microsoft stamp out CSS bugs in IE7. You’re entitled to your opinion, but The Web Standards Project believes it makes sense to help a browser maker attain compliance. That way, the browser will support standards when it is released. Helping Firefox but not helping Microsoft doesn’t make sense if the goal is to have a web where all browsers support standards.

By: AdrienneA

AdrienneA — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:35:59 +0000

You make some very good points.

Although I can understand developers’ frustration & impatience with IE, it is, as you say, a product being developed by a very big company with enormous assets.

At the same time, hasn’t it helped that the standards community has made contact with the IE7 team, to try to “encourage” the development of a better browser? And isn’t it true that a better IE makes life easier for all of us struggling to write code for this bugger? Because, like it or not, IE in some form or another will be around as long as MS is–and there will always be people who just won’t take the time to download and use Firefox.

But I do agree with you. Maybe everyone who has been writing freebie bug reports should band together & negotiate for some compensation. At least some good swag!