mac, css and ie7

how are you handling the new browser?

[sldesigns]

Hello all,
so glad to be in company developing on a mac.

With the launch of IE7, how are you handling web development? I for one just got used to css workarounds for ie 5&6 (well, mostly). Anyone heard what sort of impact it will have for those of us who can't immediately see the effects?

-cheers!

[whoisgregg]

I run 5.x/6.x versions of Windows IE on my Mac using Virtual PC. I expect to do the same with IE 7, but haven't done so yet. I tried to install it on a backup Virtual PC image, but got some error about a service pack.

Eventually, I'll take the time to install the full version of IE 7. Until then (and a significant percentage of users upgrade), I'm not too worried about it.

[sldesigns]

as an aside: can I install virtual PC on a removable hard drive? To keep it separate.

[whoisgregg]

Virtual PC creates a disk image that wholly contains the Windows environment. You can have many different disk images to contain different configurations. (XP, 98, DOS, etc.) The files in the disk image do not (to the best of my knowledge) have the ability to interact with other files on your hard drive.

Now the disk images basically start at 5GB and go up from there, so you may want to keep them on a external hard drive just so they don't eat up your disk space. But if your concern was security, I wouldn't worry about having those images on your computer.

Case in point, I have had Virtual PC Windows environments get completely overtaken by multiple viruses. I simply deleted the disk image and booted up my backup disk image. Zero damage or effect on the rest of my Mac.

[timster]

How I'm preparing for IE 7.

1. Keeping an eye on WebmasterWorld's HTML and Browsers forum to watch out for trouble.

2. Patting myself on the back for choosing to develop for standards rather than just for IE 6, since word is IE 7 is more standards compliant.

3. Thinking about buying Virtual PC. (I've got a PC with IE 6 installed on it, but as usual with IE it looks difficult to run both IE 6 and IE 7 on the same PC. It's easier on a Mac, doing like Greg explained.)

But I'm holding out in the hopes that a "Windows in a Window" app will come out for Intel Macs which will be like VPC, only fast.

4. Checking my usage logs to see if anyone's coming to my sites with IE 7 -- just about nobody is.