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IE7


redbullmarky

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Hi all
Now that IE7 has been officially released and no longer beta, it's made me think of a few things.

1, Backwards compatibility (within reason) is obviously worth keeping in mind - but when do you decide to STOP supporting older browsers?

2, I've heard that IE7 is going to be part of the auto updates, meaning that most people will automatically upgrade. Then of course, there's Vista which is bundling it by default. How sensible is it to write with IE7 in mind and pretty much ignoring IE6 compatibility?

3, Is IE7 really that great an improvement standards-wise? I've heard some good comments, but also heard bad ones (admittedly from the people who generally hate anything that MS do).

I can understand some replies maybe along the lines of "get it working in IE6 and it'll work in IE7" but my only problem is that statements like that are one of the reasons people don't move forward. It's been suggested that part of the problem in PHP migration from 4 to 5 was people suggesting that everyone should code in 4 and it'll work on 5, meaning that so many people and hosts failed to take up v5 as there wasn't a strong need to.

over to you

cheers
Mark
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1. Backward compatibility - from what history has shown us, IE is going to be a different animal than most of what we've dealt with in the browser wars in the past. First of all, IE7 requires XP SP2 to run. I don't know about you, but I have a fairly high number of users that are still on Win 98, 2000, ME, etc. There's no way I'll be able to drop IE6 support any time soon.

2. Again, refer to #1: it will only "auto-update" for your WinXP users. Plus, some people will decide they don't like it and revert to IE6 (which can be done, believe it or not).

3. To be blunt, IE7 takes great strides forward in implementing standards, but they're still about a year behind other browsers like Opera and FF when it comes to rendering. While IE7 does indeed have decent support for the DOM, they still have some CSS and javascript quirks that will need to be addressed on an individual basis. We now run into [b]two[/b] IE versions we have to hack for, because there are a few quirks that IE7 still renders incorrectly, but it is different than the IE6 incorrect :P not fun. This goes back to the article in [i]Redmond[/i] I cited in one of my other posts: M$ has basically said that the next two versions of IE (7.5 and 8 or whatever they're called) are expected to be released in the next 18 months. So, how quickly can we expect people to jump onto 7 knowing that the next version is just around the corner anyway?

The line you quoted above ([i]get it working in IE6 and it will work in IE7[/i]) is simply [b]not true[/b]! With our intranet here at the university, we have already made a list of bugs in our site that appear [b]ONLY[/b] in IE7! The rendering engine is redone, and the DOM attempts to match better to standards, which is good for AJAX and Javascripting, but because of the additional quirks this opens, I'm a little stressed about modifying all my sites yet again...

my 2 cents ;)
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unfortunately, it's not as straightforward as it would seem, as IE7 completely overwrites IE6. had a quick google search and came up with this that you can try:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/internet_explorer_ie7_tips1188.html

not sure if the rules changed since IE7 officially launched
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IE7  :o

Our corporate IT people has issued a warning to all users (many thousands, worldwide) that IE7 [b]must not[/b] be installed on workstations.  XP SP2 users got the special warning to [i]refuse all automatic updates[/i].
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[quote author=AndyB link=topic=112142.msg455855#msg455855 date=1161536975]
IE7  :o

Our corporate IT people has issued a warning to all users (many thousands, worldwide) that IE7 [b]must not[/b] be installed on workstations.  XP SP2 users got the special warning to [i]refuse all automatic updates[/i].
[/quote]

any reason given?
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[quote author=AndyB link=topic=112142.msg455943#msg455943 date=1161549175]
When the mighty IT speaks by email ... everybody listens, nobody asks :)
[/quote]
lol reminds me of a brilliant scene in The Office:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DMV5e8I34Q
hilarious stuff, and probably sums up many IT Techs the world over...
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[quote author=AndyB link=topic=112142.msg455855#msg455855 date=1161536975]
IE7  :o

Our corporate IT people has issued a warning to all users (many thousands, worldwide) that IE7 [b]must not[/b] be installed on workstations.  XP SP2 users got the special warning to [i]refuse all automatic updates[/i].
[/quote]

IMO IE6 shouldn't be installed either...
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