Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 today. I downloaded it and am really hopeful that, well, basically that it will cause less trouble in my life than previous versions.
I have a long history with Internet Explorer. In some ways it’s kind of weird to be watching it from afar. The entire Internet Explorer group, including me, started to work on another project right after IE6. I think only one or two people still work on it that worked on it with me in the IE6 days. I have to admit, I feel sentimental about those times.
The goals are different, too. When I worked on it, standards were important, but there wasn’t much competition. When people say IE wasn’t standards compliant, that wasn’t because we weren’t trying, it was mostly because there just wasn’t another point of reference. Things were different from IE7 on, and I’m sure it must have been a challenge to transform an engine toward standards compliance and not have as much freedom. I’m sure there were a couple of small, but important bugs that required huge changes.
Anyway, congratulations, and here’s to standards!
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