Paul's Blog

First here is the link.

Now here are some comments from the IE blog which just amuse me to no end. They have been quoted verbaitim from the link above there are tons more there so take a look. Once again I get to tell the world I told you so, because in previous posts I mentioned specifically that IE7 would be what it is.

IE 7 works like it was left in the street. And run over repeatedly.

If I were you all, I'd be embarassed by putting my name on this piece of work. Any chance you all will fix the myriad bugs before IE 8?

Or will you just thumb your noses at all that and go about like nothing is wrong?

I agree with Dave, I find it arrogant. In fact, it's even funny when you realize that this release is almost coincident with the release of Firefox 2.0 and that they seem able to make new releases that don't break compatibility. Oh wait, maybe it is that they do respect the standards...

Anyways, I ask the same question that Dave, can I send you the bill for the extra time to make work again all the webapps of my client, that worked nice with IE5, IE6 and Firefox 1.5 and that work nice with Firefox 2.0 but NOT with IE7 ?

"If you haven’t tested your website with IE7 yet, please use the tools Scott posted about a few weeks ago to help you prepare."

I consider this attitude very arrogant. Why should we have to test *our* websites to see if they work with *your* new browser? If they work with IE6, shouldn't they work with IE7?

I assume that you have no quarms if I send you a bill for the extra time I have to spend modifying my already working websites that I finished for my clients years ago?

I find the response below particularly ironic, since it mentions standards and IE7 in the same sentence.

"I consider this attitude very arrogant. Why should we have to test *our* websites to see if they work with *your* new browser? If they work with IE6, shouldn't they work with IE7? "

@Dave:

*You* have to put in the work because the websites that *you* wrote are not standards-compliant.

Oh yeah and this, below don't tell me you didn't see this coming but the person speaks truth.

I second Dave and LostInBrittany. Work should go on as fast as possible to make IE more standards compliant. Microsoft forced us to use hacks on our pages for years because IE6 was such as mess. Now, we need two sets of hacks to accommodate IE6 and IE7. We are not amused.

I love these posts for the illustrate the truth among things.

@Tom

"*You* have to put in the work because the websites that *you* wrote are not standards-compliant."

Rubbish. Although you are correct that some of the websites I developed do not validate. Others, though, completely follow standards and the pages still display differently in IE7 than in IE6. Standards compliance is not the point in this case:

Microsoft took this arrogant stance with XP Service Pack 2 too, which had no improvements to web-standards support.

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/sp2/what-it-means.mspx

The point is that my customers are not going to be willing to pay for an update to their website that has been effectively made compulsory by Microsoft. As soon as IE7 goes into Windows Update, lots of angry website owners are going to be ringing up their developers and demanding that their website be fixed.

Like LostInBrittany says, Firefox seems to manage it with no problems - with websites that are both valid and invalid.

I applaud the IE team for supporting more CSS and Webstandards, but the hacks we all know and love should have been left in until IE7 has the same level of standards support as Firefox/Safari/Opera do.

At the moment we are left to develop for IE7 with no means of targeting it other than conditional comments which, we all know deep down, aren't *really* valid (even if they just look like comments to the validator).

Dave