Thoughts on web development and technologies by Peter Gasston
Future CSS: variables and calculations
The W3C came under a lot of heavy flak last year for being slow, cumbersome, bureaucratic, etc; there were calls for a CSS2.2 (which I seconded) which rounded up all the existing implemented features, and for the CSS Working Group to be disbanded - a lighter, alternative task force, the CSS Eleven, was set up […]
Acid 3: It’s not about winning, it’s about taking part
It’s an exciting time to be a web developer, as all four major browsers have released / are releasing new versions with extended CSS & HTML support. However, as Opera and Webkit race to be the first to score 100% on the Acid3 test, a lot of people are getting caught up in the excitement […]
First impressions of IE8
As just about everyone in the development community must know by now, Microsoft released a first Beta of IE8 today. I’ve been testing it for the last hour or so, and here are some notes I’ve made - the first of which is that this is really more of an Alpha than a Beta; there […]
IE8 opt-in becomes IE8 opt-out
I am very pleasantly surprised. Microsoft have announced today that they have reversed their decision on the new standards mode trigger in IE8; instead of having to opt in to standards mode by using the META tag, you will have to opt out by using it instead.
In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback […]
IE8 opt-in: no problem after all?
After two days of commotion regarding the Internet Explorer team’s decision to include a standards opt-in in the next version of their browser, Mozilla’s John Resig has noticed something rather important in an exchange on IE’s Chris Wilson’s blog; namely:
Internet Explorer 8 will support DOCTYPE switching for new DOCTYPEs (like HTML5).
IE8 opt-in: reaction from other browser makers
Predictably, yesterday’s announcement from Microsoft about the new standards opt-in switch has created quite a stir in the web development community. As I noted yesterday, the reaction from the other browser makers would be quite important - and it looks as if they’re not interested.
Aside
It was announced on the HTML Working Group mailing list this morning that the font element will be absent from the next draft of the HTML5 specification. The inclusion of font in the spec was controversial, as many (including myself) thought it was a purely decorative element that had no place in semantic code.
Of course, browsers will still have to support the element because of the many legacy sites on the web; but as of now any software that generates mark-up should use the style attribute instead. It’s a small increment better.
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