
IE9, standards, and why Acid3 isn't the priority - tbgvi
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/03/ie9-standards-and-why-acid3-isnt-the-priority.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
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bad_user
Although I understand their reasons on why Acid3 isn't a priority, it doesn't
change the fact that they are late in everything that defines a modern browser
... CSS support, JS performance, HTML5, SVG, browser plugins, you name it.

So to get over my disappointment with them, personally I'm looking for more
than a half-assed attempt ... like they did with IE7 and IE8 (although the
interface changes were interesting, but that's not what people craved for).

This article seems like it's a PR piece.

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rimantas
Weird article. Some random bits of text thrown in, seemingly without
understanding even what Acid3 is. HTML5 has little to do with it, and rounded
corners even less so.

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zaphar
It read fine to me. It wasn't specifically about Acid3 so much as Microsofts
approach to testing their standard compliance.

Summary: We don't believe Acid3 and Sunspider actually test the things
browsers get used for in the real world so we are developing our test suite
instead.

Cynical view: We want our own test suites so that we can pass them and show
how everyone else sucks compared to us

Non Cynical view: Maybe they are right and a better suite of tests is needed
to truly drive standardization for HTML5

Whichever camp you fall in the article didn't seem all that disconnected to
me.

[edit]: added missing words. sometimes I type faster than I think.

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ZeroGravitas
I think the cynical view is actually that they want to hold the web back, and
have been doing so quite successfully for many years.

Saying they're only going to implement the stuff that is used on popular sites
is entirely circular because the only stuff that gets used on popular sites is
the stuff that works on IE6.

Microsoft have no incentive to advance the state of the art in browsers
because it just makes it easier for people to not use Windows and Office,
their only money makers.

For whatever reason people don't like to take the wider, business view of
things and imagine "browser wars" as some kind of sporting competition.

In the real world Microsoft won by not playing, now Google's explicit strategy
is to move the state of the browser art so far forward that Microsoft has to
move forward even if it plans to remain the anchor holding the web back. Seems
to be working.

