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What does Internet Explorer 8 mean for you?

Plan ahead for Internet Explorer 8 so you can take advantage of the security and deployment features – and update your web sites and applications to support the new standards.

By Mary Branscombe & Simon Bisson, 27 Oct 2008 at 14:47

Other options let you see how CSS rules are applied to each element, letting you spot redundant rules or places where inappropriate overrides affect your page design, with simple formatting showing which rules currently apply. You can also quickly disable CSS rules to see how rule interactions affect a page, and whether there any problems associated with a specific rule.

JavaScript developers will find the built-in JavaScript debugger extremely useful. Not only does it use traditional debugger tools - including breakpoints and single-stepping, along with the ability to watch the values of key variables - it also lets you drill down into any JavaScript libraries that may have been loaded by a page.

It’s an approach that’ll help you understand how third party code affects your pages, as well as helping manage any libraries you’ve used to simplify your web applications.

The future of the web

Tomorrow’s web promises to be very different from that of today. Much of what’s currently handled with browser plug-ins will be rendered in the browser, and a new version of HTML will allow pages to display more quickly, and use features like offline storage to bridge the gap between web and desktop.

Microsoft is part of the cross-industry development of HTML 5, and IE8 is as much a test bed for some of the upcoming web technologies as it is a state-of-the-art web browser. Some of the HTML 5 features that have made it into IE 8 include offline data storage, auto complete in forms, and the ability to mark page sections as editable.

Sites built for IE8 will also be able to offer designers a much improved set of tools for adding accessibility to dynamic web sites, as well as pages built using AJAX.

There’s a lot to be done yet to get HTML 5 to web designers and developers and to the web at large, and while Microsoft is only implementing a small part of the current draft specification, it’s a first step on what promises to be a very long journey.

Not unlike Internet Explorer itself.

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3 comments

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IE 8 - Uninstalled

I tried IE 8 but had to uninstall as Mcafee Security Centre will not work it seems with Beta versions. IE 7 & 8 are both becoming very unstable and hanging on regular occasions. I am starting to use Google Chrome which my Son uses with little problems. Roger

By VarkGripper on Sunday Nov 9

SM

Well if you will install all those toolbars and add ins what do you expect ? Try Opera it\'s much better than Chrome. Chrome is really annoying with it\'s hard disk trashing.

By stevematt on Friday Nov 14