IE7 Beta Released

Internet Explorer 7: Now in beta testing for developers

[chadmg]

[microsoft.com...]

Improved design to make everyday tasks easier and faster, with better navigation through tabbed browsing; inline search right from the toolbar; shrink-to-fit Web page printing; and a streamlined, redesigned user interface (currently in its early stages in Beta 1).

And they REALLY like RSS feeds according to their next improvement.

New tools to take you directly to the information you want through support for Web feeds (RSS) that includes automatic discovery of web feeds (RSS) on Web pages, basic Web Feed (RSS) reading capabilities, and basic support for saving Web feeds (RSS) as a new kind of favorite.

Anybody want to share their MSDN subscription? ;)

[Robin_reala]

JAB - could you point to the part of WCAG that says that :hover must be used on items other than links to pass triple-A?

[JAB Creations]

Could you point out a 508, AAA, and W3C complaint way to make a site interactive and engaging in IE6 or below using html and css without javascript?

IE7 is coming out finally and with immensely needed bug fixes. I've had plenty of examples when working on code where something cool and very ingenious would simply not work in IE. Hidden or tucked away items that would only be useful if just it's hover state were inacted for example.

[Robin_reala]

By referring to AAA you're inferring complying to WCAG 1.0 priority levels 1, 2 and 3.

I agree that hover states are a usability issue but I don't think that saying that it's impossible to achieve triple-A on IE6 is entirely accurate. It's very difficult to achieve triple-A in the best of scenarios but the difficulty lies with (e.g.) providing translated content for your users, not with missing features from IE.

[Hester]

What if your site didn't need hover at all? Surely then it would be AAA in IE?

[collymellon]

Your site can still have hover in IE and be AAA using the A element, it may be restrictive but you can certainly achive the hover effect and be AAA\IE..

[JAB Creations]

The basic idea is that you can't have your cake and eat it too! You can't do anything fancy, compliant, and have it work on IE (6 and below) without using hacks...and we're web designers, not hackers or even programmers (though some of us may be all three even!).

To boot whose the richest guy in the world? *hums to the micky mouse tune* G-A-T....

oh yeah...being the richest guy in the world and owning an incompetent browser? We could go back to the whole IE being intergrated in to the OS...corporate domination over home computers, the law suits...

But in the end ... the acceptable and normal way or doing businesss is not. But like any other profession its the quirks that let you jack up your prices.

While my arguement was vague, my ultimate point is still valid, IE can not be interactive for people who are fully healthy and want all the bells and whistles AND be accessible AND be compliant without having to resort to hacks. It's not intuitive and politics should have no place in the workforce and unfortunately Microsoft has gone beyond bringing politics in to our arena. I'm not asking for people to fully agree with me, but at least please acknowledge my point isn't as dull as an unsharpened pencil.