Forum Moderators: not2easy
In other words, is ie7 any better with CSS than ie6? If all looks good in ie6, should we still worry about ie7 and test it separately?
In other words, is ie7 any better with CSS than ie6?
Most definitely, enough to hush the critics and push the "bug" word under the carpet for a while..
would you rather have ie6 on your developing machine or ie7?
Depends how long you think IE6 and below will be around really there are big differences but the question is, is it worth learning them?
Looking at the attrition rate over the past five years or so, that "attrition rate" being the rate at which older browsers sort of fall below the radar by reaching a low enough percentage of hits to consider them an aberration and ignore them, my guess is that IE6 will need to be accomodated for at least the next five years.
(Hurts to say that, but I think it's true.)
Right now, I can tell you firsthand, that in the corporate world where IE is often the only browser available to rank-and-file users, the fear of "breaking" intranet sites crucial to getting work done by switching to IE7 is very great. It's a real project testing everything out before permitting an upgrade and the process is slow.
Plus, until the middle of next year at least, XP machines will continue to be sold - with Microsoft's full knowledge and permission - with IE6.
It's gonna be a long, hard slog.
As a webmaster, having your sites that are 50/50 between ie6 and ie7 on a user side, would you rather have ie6 on your developing machine or ie7?
False dilemma [en.wikipedia.org] :-)
I make sure to have both current versions [google.be] as well as IE 5.01 and 5.5 for Windows present on my dev systems (though the need for these latter two is rapidly diminishing...)
Incidentally, regardless of what browsers your visitors use, the best overall development tactic is still to develop on the most highly compliant browser you have available to you (keeping in mind the limitations of the least compliant), and then correct rendering errors in the poorer browsers. This future-proofs you from any changes Microsoft may make to their browser, as well as from any changes your visitors may make to their preferred browsers.
What's more, it's now possible to cover virtually all the browser bases on one machine. Assuming you're using Windows, you can also download and test in all of the following non-IE browsers:
These cover the main rendering engines used on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux variants, so it's now possible to develop confidently for all the major platforms even if you're running a Windows workstation.
-b
Right now, I can tell you firsthand, that in the corporate world where IE is often the only browser available to rank-and-file users, the fear of "breaking" intranet sites crucial to getting work done by switching to IE7 is very great. It's a real project testing everything out before permitting an upgrade and the process is slow.
Amen.. that's always what have held IE (MS) Back.. now it seems the tide is a turnin' there has always been a choice, always since NS4/IE4 browser wars time ... and designers have likely felt that more than most.. truth be told I agree a new, somewhat surprising, 'benchmark' has been set - we 'purists' (ain't heard that word in long while ;)) know that you have to stay one browser ahead..
perhaps after all the MS bashing in the last few years people weren't expecting it to be this one.. so if you chose this one to test/best with then lucky you :)
There was no question outside of ie6 and ie7. There is no problem about having other browsers installed.
It is about if you’ve experienced something that worked in ie6 while it DID NOT in ie7.
Is there any ie7 specific CSS rendering bug?
Have you ever maintained a site that looked different between ie6 and ie7?
Thanks
But by and large IE7 renders sites developed for IE6 the same as IE6. I never saw anything that made me take notice.
Of course the reverse will not be true - if you develop for IE7 using some of the more advanced CSS selectors that are now supported you will definitely run into visible differences.
Plus, since I script a lot of display changes with style properties, I can tell you firsthand that the behavior of the script engine as it accesses the DOM is different. Scripts written and working well for IE7 choked in IE6 and had to be rewritten.
