IE8 will now conform to standardsVole passes the acid testBy Sylvie Barak: Tuesday, 04 March 2008, 8:30 AMAFTER MUCH grumbling by developers and users, the vole has abruptly volete faced on its strange IE8 decision to make web pages opt in to conforming behaviour, now deciding that it would in fact be a better idea to have the new browser render in full standards mode by default. This means that the new browser now passes the Acid-2-rendering test.The Vole had originally intended to make the super-standards mode an opt-in choice with IE 7 "standards" mode the default, which, the Vole reckoned, would assure improved backwards-compatibility with current Web sites and applications. Now though, IE8 will have three rendering modes: the new standards-compliant mode, the IE7 rendering engine and an option for displaying older Web sites. Sites that want IE8 to use its IE7 engine will have to add a tag to their code.Most Mightysoft representatives are claiming that the change of heart comes from a burning desire to make good on their recent promise of interoperability, but some are also admitting that the decision may be down to legal reasons. Microsoft General Counsel, Brad Smith, said in a statement yesterday that, " While we do not believe there are currently any legal requirements that would dictate which rendering mode must be chosen as the default for a given browser, this step clearly removes this question as a potential legal and regulatory issue".In December of last year, Opera Software slammed the Vole with an antitrust complaint, for its failure to get its browser conform with key web standards.Microsoft hasn't revealed when the final version of IE8 will be available, but a beta version of the browser is supposed to come out sometime in the next few months.
Opera ftw...
