Web Devout tidings

Since this site’s standards support resource was referenced in an article linked to on Slashdot, there has been some renewed discussion critical of Microsoft’s efforts in browser development. I have seen some blogs such as Web 2.0 Explorer and Download Squad complain that Internet Explorer 7 won’t be fully CSS 2.1 compliant.

In a somewhat rare move, I must come to Microsoft’s defense on this one. As far as I know, Internet Explorer 7 isn’t adding any nonstandard features to CSS and the developers have put forth a lot of work to fix as many of the most common CSS bugs as time allowed them. After a recent update, my tables currently show that Internet Explorer 7 has 55% support for CSS 2.1, up from 51% in IE6. That’s a 4% improvement. Although that doesn’t sound like much, it should be noted that it’s about the same total difference that the latest versions of Firefox and Opera have improved over their predecessors (Firefox 1.5 showed a 5% increase and Opera 9 showed a 3% increase).

The CSS standard is very large and complex, and I’m not sure if Microsoft is structured in such a way that they can put too many more people on the Internet Explorer core development team without it becoming too disorganized. All things aside, a 4% increase isn’t too bad for a year’s worth of work considering the other more user-focused improvements. It certainly doesn’t put Internet Explorer anywhere near where we web developers would like it to be, but that simply isn’t a realistic possibility in this short amount of time. In fact, considering that they’re adding improvements at about the same speed as the other browsers, it’s doubtful that Microsoft (or any company in their position) can catch up to the competition in the foreseeable future. That’s a reality we have to face, and it isn’t really the fault of Microsoft’s current efforts, but its past efforts (or lack thereof).

I think the Internet Explorer developers are starting to get it. They’ve been opening up lately and have expressed growing care for standards. I don’t see how Trident can become a decent layout engine without a ground-up rewrite as every other major layout engine had in the CSS era, but the developers are doing what they can. In IE7, Microsoft showed a willingness to break backwards compatibility in the interest of standards, and I think that was a very important precedent to set. I don’t know if they’re likely to rewrite the engine from scratch, but they are no longer giving the finger to web standards and I don’t believe the developers deserve the disrespect many have given them for the work they are doing right now. What I believe Microsoft deserves disrespect for is the long wait they gave us and all of the proprietary junk beforehand.

Yes, Internet Explorer’s standards support is still abysmal compared to Firefox and Opera, and at this rate it looks to be so for many more versions to come. But I don’t see any reason to chastise Microsoft for what they’re currently doing. Instead, ask why they waited so long if they knew they were unable to catch up afterwards, and encourage the public to select their web browsers based on the true quality of the browsers and not simply based on the browsers’ market inertia. As alternative browsers gain a powerful market share, web developers can begin sneaking newer standards into their websites and drive the public to using only modern web browsers. If Internet Explorer can’t handle what all of the other competitors can, then it’s a simple survival of the fittest situation and the worst browser is left in the mud. If Microsoft can pull a rabbit out of their hat and make Internet Explorer a true competitor, then there should be no complaints. Internet Explorer 7 has a decent amount of improvements, and we’ll see where the developers take it from there.

But I’m still hoping for a full engine rewrite.

I finally sat down and finished the standards support information for Opera 9.

Opera 9 shows some major improvements in key areas. The CSS information was discussed earlier, and here are some of the HTML and DOM support highlights:

• Various minor HTML support fixes.
• Support for Document.adoptNode().
• Improvements to XML namespace support in DOM Core.
• Support for Node.textContent.
• Improvements to DocumentType (document.doctype) and Notation and Entity interfaces.
• Huge improvements in DOM Level 2 Style, surpassing Firefox 1.5’s support in some areas. Includes near complete implementation of DOM Level 2 StyleSheets and most of DOM Level 2 CSS (excluding the CSSValue interface, a number of other interfaces related to CSS property values, DocumentCSS, and DOMImplementationCSS).

According to the tables, HTML/XHTML support has increased by under 1% and DOM support has increased by 6%. The tables now put Opera 9’s overall DOM support above Firefox 1.5’s: 84% compared to 79%, with Internet Explorer 7 at 51%.

I have finished testing the CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 support in Opera 9.

Here are some of the major changes in Opera 9 as far as CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 support:

• Apparently full support for CSS 2.1 basic selectors.
• Corrected support for :active and :hover with universal selectors and the body element.
• Some fixes for margin and width properties.
• Elements can now properly overlap iframe elements.
• Much improved support for CSS 3 media queries.
• Apparently full support for CSS 3 basic selectors (from previously no support).
• Support for most form-related CSS 3 pseudo-elements.
• Some support for CSS 3 opacity property, although the support is somewhat flawed (for example, if you have an element with the same color for foreground and background and reduce its opacity, the text’s alphatransparency is rendered separately from the background’s, causing the text to be quite visible).

There isn’t much that I was personally disappointed about. There are still some issues with :before, :after, and :first-line, but they are no worse than the issues other browsers have with them. Counter scope is still handled incorrectly according to the current CSS 2.1 drafts, although the problem can be avoided by remembering to use counter-reset in the appropriate places. I would have liked :last-child support, but that’s in CSS 3 anyway. I still notice some slight positioning problems when dealing with very complex styles, although it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact source.

All in all, this release shows that Opera is continuing to make consistent progress in the area of CSS support, and it is certainly giving other leading browsers some strong competition. According to the Web Devout tables, Opera’s overall CSS 2.1 support has risen from 93% to 96%, compared to IE 6’s 52%, IE 7’s 54%, and Firefox 1.5’s 93%. Opera’s support for current CSS 3 changes has risen from 8% to 22%, compared to IE 6’s 10%, IE 7’s 13%, and Firefox 1.5’s 27%.

HTML and DOM support information will come later. Some improvements have been made in both areas.

Opera 9 has now been released. Some of the new features include a selective content blocker which can be used to remove banner ads and other unwanted content from webpages, support for BitTorrent distributed downloads, desktop widgets, and improved standards support. See the official changelog for more information.

I will begin testing and updating my standards support resource shortly. It appears as though many positioning bugs have been fixed. Although Opera 9 passes the Acid2 test, note that the test only covers a relatively small selection of features from the standards, and like other browsers, there are still known inconsistencies with the standards in Opera 9. I will post updates on my progress as I test its support.

The latest alpha version of Firefox has been labeled “feature complete,” meaning no significant changes are planned for the webpage layout engine. In response, I have added the Firefox 2.0 information to the Web browser standards support resource. According to my information so far, there have been no significant changes to the areas currently covered in the standards support resource. However, since there were changes to SVG support and I hope to add SVG information to the tables eventually, I have decided to list Firefox 2.0 separately from Firefox 1.5.

Opera 9 information will be added when the public builds are labeled “feature complete” or an equivalent. Opera is known to make significant changes even in the final beta versions, so it’s possible that I will be unable to begin thorough testing until the final version of Opera 9 is released.