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Useful Resources

Now that we have the team blog going I thought it'd be useful to share a few of what we see as essential resources. You'll see links to these at the side of this page as well and I'm sure we'll add more links over time.
You can find my own blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/dmassy
Thanks
-Dave Massy
Internet Explorer Program Management team

Useful Resources
There are lots of useful resources for Internet Explorer that we’d like to point out to you in case you are not familiar with them.

  • Blogs - There are the blogs that we link to on the left from members of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft containing useful hints and tips and giving you an idea of how we work, this blog will help give you further insight into the team.
  • The Internet Explorer Developer Center on MSDN – this area of MSDN contains links to articles and the reference pages for HTML and CSS in Internet Explorer that form an indispensable resource for a web developer. 
  •  Channel 9 – Channel 9 is an area where you can see more of the inside of Microsoft with videos of people at Microsoft talking about the projects they work on. Maybe we’ll have some of the Internet Explorer team up there soon! There are also forums where you can introduce your own topics for discussion and you’ll often find members of the Internet Explorer team joining in and responding.

Leaving Feedback
The Internet Explorer team welcomes all the feedback that we receive. One of the best places to leave feedback is on the Internet Explorer Wiki which is hosted on Channel 9. By placing feedback and requests here you can be sure that the Internet Explorer team will read it.

 

Published Wednesday, July 21, 2004 6:25 PM by ieblog
Filed under:

Comments

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 6:41 AM by James
So um.... going to publically commit to standards? :D Take sides in the RSS vs Atom debate?

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 9:46 AM by Jason Lotito
I will admit up front that I am not an IE user (heck, not even Windows), but I am a developer of web based applications, and this means IE is a reality.

And in all honesty, from a standards perspective, IE is not all that bad. Heck, even the Box Model problems aren't all that bad, when you consider that the problem IE caused with the Box Model was to actually do something that made sense.

However, standards are standards. I don't expect IE, or any browser to have 100% standards support, but I do expect an honest effort at support the functionality that drives web design.

For example, take PNG alpha transparency support. It's there, if you can hack the code for it. PNG's Alpha Transparency is a great feature, but completely useless on IE.

But really, it all comes down to standards. Supporting these standards means I can develop a web application with minimal fuss. It means that if I am developing a Intranet system, I don't have to standardize on Mozilla just because it supports the things I need.

It used to be easy to develop for IE, and a pain to develop for NS. Now it's the reverse. Mozilla is easy to develop for, I just hope IE supports it.

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 10:09 AM by hi
add tabs please

# CSS Behaviors

Thursday, July 22, 2004 10:14 AM by David Flatman
On the "Internet Explorer Outrageous" page (http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.InternetExplorerOutrageous), there was a suggestion to provide "Some decent controls" (I appolize that I didn't see a way to directly respond on that page).

I've been using CSS Behaviors since IE5.5 -- essentially object oriented HTML -- to great effect. We have developed a menuing class, date picker, input validator, etc. The last time I looked CSS Behaviors were still part of W3C CSS v3 working papers.

If there is concern to both (a) remain standards compliant and (b) provide "decent controls" getting the W3C to actually recommend behaviors looks like the ideal solution.

Microsoft (and other) can then generate rather nice control via a standard mechanism.

-- Dave

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 11:00 AM by Dave M.
I'll throw my 2 cents worth in here. Please make IE conform to W3C standards! Please!

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 11:02 AM by lynn erisken
How about CSS3 'box-sizing'?

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 12:39 PM by not important
wow. first of all, the main blog page (blogs.msdn.com/ie) happily bombs out with 19 (NINETEEN!) errors on w3's validator. second, the input boxes on this page are about 8 pixels wide in opera and it's nigh to impossible to actually enter a name, title or a URL. this input box is about 40 pixels wide. uber-sweet :)

# IE wastes time: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 1:14 PM by Jake
Until IE supports alpha transparency for .png files, which would literally save every graphic and web designer thousands of hours throughought their career, IE will be the bane of the entire web.

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 4:46 PM by Jonathan Miller
I actually don't have any big IE complaints. I've found it easier to develop with than any other browser. What I really want is the ability to make Browser/Shell extensions with .NET instead of C++ or ActiveX. Would'nt it also make more sense in .NET? The security model would keep the add-ons from infecting your machine with spyware. I know that clickonce is coming but it actually want to able to make IE toolbars/windows with vb.net! Come on, big money no whammies! Congrats everyone on IE team for the great SP2 version. Say, is there an outlook express developers blog?

# IE Development Team has a Blog

Thursday, July 22, 2004 8:21 PM by Brainstorms and Raves
Microsoft Internet Explorer's development team started a weblog: IEBlog. See Wednesday's Useful Resources post, too, for some good links to check out.

# IE Development Team has a Blog

Thursday, July 22, 2004 8:36 PM by Brainstorms and Raves
Microsoft Internet Explorer's development team started a weblog: IEBlog. See Wednesday's Useful Resources post, too, for some good links to check out.

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 9:16 PM by I hate it
These are not useful resources...

Blogs...

Currently contain 0 useful content. Most of what I see here seems to be PR BS aimed to keep folks hanging onto IE instead of moving to a capable, modern browser. Well except for all the compliants.

Internet Explorer Developer Center on MSDN....

Yea! 2-3 year old content that fails to help in any way with any of IEs many bugs and failings.

Channel 9...

More complaining as in these blog comments, with no responses from MS that addresses any of the issues raised.

Sigh.

Here are some actually useful resources...

http://www.positioniseverything.net ...

Actual in dept description of IE bugs, with methods to avoid or circumvent them when methods are known.

http://nemesis1.f2o.org/bugs

More bug info

http://validator.w3c.org

Help you produce standards compliant code that should work across browsers. Sure it breaks all over IE, but the IE team will be addressing that, right? Well maybe.

http://www.info.com.ph/~etan/w3pantheon/style/starhtmlbug.html

The "* HTML" hack. A bug in IE that lets you apply custom CSS to just IE helping to address some of the issues where IE chokes where other browsers fly.

I'm sure there are many more useful resources such as these. Its a pity none of them come from MS.

# re: Useful Resources

Thursday, July 22, 2004 10:11 PM by I Hate It
Oh and heres a cool one I forgot. Though like IE's browser its a bit buggy at the moment...

Dean Edwards IE7 script...
http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/

It used JScript to fix a number of IE's problems. If some guy outside of MS can do it with JScript, what the hell is wrong with MS that they can't.

# re: Useful Resources

Friday, July 23, 2004 7:39 AM by Jeremy C. Wright
I Hate It: Actually, the MS devs respond quite regularly on Channel 9. Unless you're reading the Wiki, which doesn't allow for responses, but which the IE Team has regularly say they watch incredibly closely (one of the reasons they haven't said "tell us your bugs!").

# re: Useful Resources

Friday, July 23, 2004 9:25 AM by I Hate It
Um. I did a search there for "Internet Explorer" and all that came back was these few threads...

When will we see features that Internet Explorer lacks in Internet Explorer?
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=10876

When will Internet Explorer fully support standards?
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=286

IE's market share is slipping
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=9149

PNG Alpha Transparency Petition
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1416

IE Feedback Fest
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=11458

And as I stated I see little concrete feedback from MS in those threads, except posts by jonathanh saying to use the Wiki, but lots of questions/feedback from outsideres.

Though perhaps the search engine there doesn't search the whole site. Can you please point out where they provide userful responses. Those would be useful resources.

# re: Useful Resources

Friday, July 23, 2004 9:25 AM by I Hate It
er useful responses.

# re: Useful Resources

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 7:45 AM by fedUP
Security aside, W3C Standards are what it's all about...until IE (developed by Microsoft, which has the most resources on Earth and, I believe, is a member of that standards-development body) will accept that developers want standards for valid, everyday life reasons (and not just to bash Microsoft), then developers will indeed bash MS.

Adobe and Macromedia are just two examples of companies that have excellent relations with their customers: Photoshop artists are respected, Dreamweaver developers are courted, etc. - none of us outside of Microsoft need Bill Gates to come do our dishes for us (we're not asking MS to do *everything*), but the year-after-year, arrogant disregard for what *actual* CUSTOMERS want is beginning to reap its proper rewards.

A Wish-List for IE?:

1 - FULL native support for CSS 1, 2, and as much of 3 as possible

2 - FULL native support for MathML (yes, real people actually do want, and *need*, this) - think scientists, mathematicians, researchers, statisticians, etc.

3 - FULL native support for PNG

4 - FULL native support for SVG

5 - FULL native support for XML *and* XHTML (delivered either as html or xml)

6 - Tabbed Browsing

7 - pop-up blocking (customizeable by site)

8 - NO ActiveX, Smart Tags integration or dependencies

9 - NO integration with the OS

10 - NO integration with other Office products

11 - SMALL Core Footprint, with the ability for plug-in/extension development to provide for more specific features

12 - DROP Alexa: it's spyware

13 - FIX IE's printing bug, where it prints something like "file://C:\DOCUME~1\(name)\LOCALS`1\Temp\NNL02KNO.htm" instead of simply printing a web page's actual URL


Until such time as IE sports some of these *basic*, *necessary* features, here are a few resources that are more useful than the way-out-of-date marketing...opps, sorry, technical, info provided by Microsoft:


http://www.google.com/search?q=IE%27s+shortcomings&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CategoryBrowserBug

http://www.positioniseverything.net/index.php

http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/supportkey/syntax.htm

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/contents.html

http://westciv.com/style_master/academy/browser_support/index.html

http://nemesis1.f2o.org/bugs

http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2004/01/26/ie-factor.html

http://www.galaxygoo.org/blogs/archives/000528.html

http://geocities.com/csssite/index.xml

http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/guide/product.html#standards

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/why/

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/


Sorry, but you'll need Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape 7.1, or other Gecko-based browser to see some of these sites properly, since IE doesn't fully support standards such as MathML, SVG, PNG, CSS, etc.

PLEASE, listen to us...some of us actually DO like IE...but it has caused more trouble than any other single piece of software is many of our lives...and I'm not saying that to be mean or make you feel bad.

I would LOVE to see an IE with incredible standards support and tough-as-nails security...wouldn't happy developers constitute a small (or maybe not-so-small) army of marketers eager to tout the benefits of such an IE to all *their* customers, if they had a reliable browser from you?

That just seems like good business.

# re: Useful Resources

Friday, August 06, 2004 8:37 AM by enoughalready
here's a useful resource from Microsoft:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/browserexpress.asp

Apparently someone at Microsoft knows how to do tabbed browsing in IE - maybe someone at Microsoft could do it in IE for us, so users don't have to program their own browsers?

some of us have other jobs to do, besides creating our own browser

# IEBlog Useful Resources | Paid Surveys

Friday, May 29, 2009 5:51 PM by IEBlog Useful Resources | Paid Surveys

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