Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 Microsoft has decided to abandon the "controversial" version targeting feature in Internet Explorer 8. We've decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we've posted previously. Short and to the point. Needless to say standardistas are delighted, and not just because version targeting has been dropped . It seems like ... Read full entry

Microsoft to launch beta of Internet Explorer 8 After all the talk of IE8's version targeting feature, web developers will soon be able to see it in action, with the pending release of the Internet Explorer 8 beta. Microsoft executives are expected to reveal further details about the browser's features at the software maker's upcoming Mix conference in Las Vegas next week. Last year at Mix, Microsoft outlined some ... Read full entry

Doctype switching for IE 8 Rather than go down the version targeting path Microsoft proposes, why not "make doctype switching stricter" asks Roger Johansson. An idea that makes much more sense than forcing standards aware developers to opt in to opt out was put forward in WaSP Round Table: IE8's Default Version Targeting Behavior. The idea is to keep using the doctype to switch modes, but require a strict ... Read full entry

Version Targeting: Threat or Menace? Jeffrey Zeldman on enlightened developers verses unenlightened developers, Internet Explorer 6 verses Internet Explorer 7, and the case for Version Targeting in Internet Explorer 8. When IE's compliance leaped forward with IE7, at least temporarily satisfying Microsoft's first customer group, the badly authored sites created by the second customer group stopped working correctly, leaving unenlightened developers profoundly peeved. From the outside, to readers of ALA and ... Read full entry

Fear and Loathing in Standardsville: The IE8 Opt-in Debate If you're fed up with all the talk about the new version targeting "feature" of Internet Explorer 8... I'd say get used to it. Perhaps you'd prefer to read about the Microsoft Yahoo! merger instead? In other words, I think we'll be hearing a LOT more about both topics in the next little while. Back to IE8's version targeting though, ... Read full entry

Legacy. A great analysis of the new "version targeting" feature of Internet Explorer 8, and a look at the reasons behind the decision of the IE development team to include it in the new browser. There's only one space left in the market where IE can still claim that bloated 95%+ market share: corporate intranets. But lately the corporate customers have been a bit twitchy; Windows Vista has been ... Read full entry

Has Internet Explorer Just Shot Itself in the Foot? London-On-Sea designer Andy Budd weighs into the Internet Explorer 8 version targeting debate with perhaps the best write up on the subject so far (as far as I am concerned) in terms of clarity, and humour. This idea has come about because Microsoft are worried about "breaking the web". Essentially they're concerned that new browsers will stop rendering older pages ... Read full entry

Standards mode is the new quirks mode. Apologies to those of disassociated's readers who are wondering what the hell "version targeting", "doctype switching", (and not to mention "browser sniffing") is all about, and why anyone cares in the first place. I'm still trying to get my head around the concept, and, needless to say, have been doing a little reading on the subject. I thought I'd conclude discussion on the topic ... Read full entry

In defense of version targeting. Jeffrey Zeldman's thoughts on the version targeting debate: Today too many sites aren't semantic, don't validate, and aren't designed to specs of the W3C. Idealists think we can change this by "forcing" ignorant developers to get wisdom about web standards. Idealists hope, if sites suddenly display poorly in IE, the developers will want to know why, and will ... Read full entry

From Switches to Targets: A Standardista's Journey. Eric Meyer, also writing at A List Apart, is not in favour of Internet Explorer 8's version targeting feature: As I read through Aaron Gustafson's Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8, my immediate gut reaction was deeply negative. The version-targeting mechanism Aaron described was just wrong, completely backwards, the exact opposite of what we ought to be doing. ... Read full entry