IE8 - Does it break things?

Tags: IE, Microsoft

I have come across a lot of blogs in the last week, all are complaining about how Internet Explorer 8 is breaking websites. There is one thing these people need to remember, it is a beta and is so named beta because it is still buggy. The history of IE5/6/7, all in beta releases didn't work on a lot of current sites.

The best thing about IE8, is the beta comes with a permanent development mode called Emulate IE7 and I haven't come across one site that has not worked. All it means is that it doesn't use the new Version 8 engine.

Give it a go, and when you want to complain about the breakage do so when it is a final release. Until then be very careful that not all sites are going to work with IE8 until the new CSS styles are ironed out.

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  • Dan G. Switzer, II's Gravatar @Andrew:

    I agree that people who complain that a beta browsers breaks things are annoying. However, I think the people who are posting contructive reports (like John Resig, PPk, etc.) are how things eventually get fixed. The "IE8 sux!" posts serve no purpose, but the guys who are trying to track down what works and what's broken are they guys who are only helping to make IE8 a better browser.
    # Posted By Dan G. Switzer, II | 3/10/08 6:51 AM
  • DAle Fraser's Gravatar Are you serious?

    Blogger didn't allow me to post the CF8 Grid stuff doesn't work. And this is Emulate IE7 mode, I don't think you tried hard enough.
    # Posted By DAle Fraser | 3/10/08 6:13 PM
  • Andrew Scott's Gravatar @Dan - I agree that finding the issues, and reporting them in the correct place improves the product. There is numerous tests on the IE pages, that show what currently works and what currently is broken etc. And I can safely say that it will change over time.

    @Dale - Well then that is me making an idiot of myself for assuming that you didn't try that:-) Just you didn't state that:-)

    But as I have installed IE8 beta 1, I can say that every site that I have run over to with IE8 has had some issues, some very minor. But when I try the same sites in IE7 Emaulation mode I have not had a problem as of yet. But having said that, I doubt that the emulation mode would have changed since IE7 was released/patched.
    # Posted By Andrew Scott | 3/10/08 8:50 PM
  • DAle Fraser's Gravatar Andrew,

    I did state that on my blog "And all the CF8 Ajax / DHTML features are broken. Even in IE7 emulation mode the grids will not render correctly."

    And perhaps it's just me, does this work for you

    http://tutorial1.learncf.com/demo/1

    If I remember correctly, the columns and headings aren't aligned properly. Some things I did notice worked, for example IE8 didn't do the tabs on learncf but worked in Emulation mode.

    I also agree that bagging the beta serves no purpose, Im not bagging it, I like it. But there are a lot of sites that will need fixing, and people need to be aware of these issues and start fixing them. Adobe & Google included. I bet Blogger works on IE8 beta within days.
    # Posted By DAle Fraser | 3/10/08 9:19 PM
  • Andrew Scott's Gravatar Dale, yes I see the problem in IE7.0 emulation as well. But to also be honest I have seen this in IE7.0 as well as IE5.0, maybe not as prounounced as this or as easy. But I have at work, even in Firefox as well.

    So I wouldn't put this down to IE7.0 emulation, but extJS1.0 which Coldfusion uses and is one of the reason there was a version 1.1 released.
    # Posted By Andrew Scott | 3/12/08 3:14 AM

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