molly.com
Wednesday 11 August 2004
IE could be better if . . .
IMAGINE YOU COULD magically make Microsoft fix their IE browser. What would you ask for? Here’s my list to start:
- Complete and proper implementation of the application/xhtml+xml MIME type
- Scalable font support
min-widthandmax-widthsupport- allow
:hoverfor any element - child selector support
- adjacent sibling selector support
- Alpha Channel Support for PNG
Now it’s your turn. Don’t be shy, let it fly!
Hat tip: Rafael
Filed under: software, standards
Posted by: Molly | 07:10 | Comments (20)
I’d wish for native support of SVG and MathML, to go with that PNG support. I’d also like to see
abbrbeing supported – essential for XHTML 2.0. I’d like to see all the CSS selectors supported.What the hell, I’d like it to be perfect!
Browser extensions that are easy to write. The way it’s done now is via Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) which are COM objects you have to write in C++. I’ve done my share of this coding and can say BHO’s are a bitch to develop and debug. I love how extensions are done in Mozilla, though.
Tabbed browsing would be another thing for the wish-list. Oh, and a JavaScript console for quickie debugging.
Support for
position:fixedwould be welcome (and is long overdue).Allowing the use of multiple <button type=”submit” /> tags to submit a different value depending on which button was pressed. Currently this only works correctly with <input type=”submit” />.
Five of your six wishes are covered by IE7. Not the same as getting Microsoft to fix its problems, of course, but still a nifty way of using IE’s strengths to fix some of its flaws.
Internet Explorer doesn’t just need ‘application/xhtml+xml’ MIME support, it needs basic support for MIME. Now, it sniffs MIME type based on the content of a file, not the ‘Content-Type’ sent by the server. ‘application/xhtml+xml’ support implies XHTML support, which I doubt Internet Explorer will support for yet a couple of years (or more).
I want it to support HTML 4.01 and CSS2 fully before anything else. The so-called «support» it has today is just ridiculous.
Firstly I’d like every IE user to upgrade to it.
Then I’d like postion:absolute; width: auto; top: 0px; bottom: 50px to work. (Similar with left and right).
This would really, really make layout simple.
I’ll second the “position:fixed” request.
I’ve been using the :first-child pseudo-class a lot lately, and dislike having to insert special classes into my HTML just because IE can’t handle it.
I’ve even been dabbling in some generated content. I’d rather have CSS insert a colon between a DT and DD when it’s warranted, not hardcode them into the content.
Can we just wish for ‘full CSS support’?
…position: fixed.
…attribute selectors.
…
autovalues for margins that actually work.In truth, most of the things about IE that annoy me are about DHTML, and then there’s the lack of PNG alpha support. (Argh.)
Provide your feedback and feature requests at:
http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.InternetExplorerFeedback
The IE team that will be developing for Longhorn is taking this as input for consideration.
All I want it to do is have coffee ready for me when I come in to the office each morning.
1. Discontinue the product.
2. Post new MSIE homepage redirecting all visitors to:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Problem solved.
Smarter rounding. When I say right: 0;, I _mean_ right: 0;!
I just want IE to stop crashing. I must crash it five times a day. Can they invent a version of IE that can recover from an error?
“IE could be better if…”
It used the Gecko rendering engine.
Actually, in this case, it would be better if this happened.
Fix the “active link” bug. Am I the only one who has noticed this in every version of IE since 4.0?
1. Find a page with a few links.
2. Click on one.
3. Hit the “back” button.
4. Notice that the wrong link (usually the previous one) is highlighted with a dotted border.
It doesn’t always happen, but it happens often. Or it used to, I use Firefox almost exclusively now.
CSS3 Rounded Corners (corner-radius)! (also on my wish list for moz, why use -moz?)