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January 23, 2008 4:00 AM PST
Perspective: Acid2, Acid3, and the power of default
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The test, published by the Web Standards Project, has been a tremendous success in weeding out browser bugs that stop Web designers from reaching pixel perfection in their pages. Safari and Opera ship Acid2-compliant versions, and the upcoming Firefox 3 will also pass the test.
Recently, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer version 8 can render Acid2, and it showed a screenshot to back the claim. The news was received with joy and excitement in the Web-authoring community.
Finally, it seems, Microsoft has decided to take Web standards seriously. Designers will no longer have to spend countless hours trying to get their pages to look right in Internet Explorer while adhering to standards. Unfortunately, I think that the celebration is premature. I predict that IE 8 will not pass Acid2, after all.
But first, a few words about the next Acid test, soon to be published by the Web Standards Project: Acid3.
Acid3 will follow in the footsteps of Acid1 and Acid2; it's a tough one-page test that displays a quirky graphic when rendered correctly. No browser will pass the test at the time of its release. All vendors are equally challenged.
Whereas Acid2 was a static Web page, Acid3 will be a dynamic Web application. When browsers are improved to pass Acid3, it will become easier to write Web applications that work interoperably across browsers.
Acid3 is written for and by the Web community. Ian Hickson is the editor of the test. While he has a unique ability to write test cases that expose bugs in all browsers, he has also asked for help from others. Code contributions are welcome.
Acid2 and Acid3 both state that they should be tested using the default settings of the browser. Web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen has discussed the power of defaults for search results. It applies to many other areas as well.
People are more likely to use the default browser than an alternate browser. They are more likely to save a document in the default format than in an optional format. And they are more likely to display Web documents using the browsers' default settings than to change the settings.
This brings me back to Microsoft and my prediction that IE 8 will not pass Acid2. I suspect that IE 8 will, at best, support standards in a circuitous way--they will exert the power of default.
What will happen when you type http://webstandards.org/acid2 in your freshly installed IE 8? Will Acid2 be displayed correctly when you hit the test button?
Microsoft has been asked that question, but it has not given an answer. I think that the company is considering three possible scenarios.
One scenario could be that IE 8 will require users or authors to "opt in" to support standards. For example, in order to render Acid2 correctly, users could be required to modify IE 8's default settings. This breaks with the guidelines of the test, and IE 8 will therefore not pass in this scenario.
A second scenario could be that Microsoft requires Web pages to change the default settings by flagging that they really, really want to be rendered correctly. Web pages already have a way to say this (called "doctype switching," which is supported by all browsers), but Microsoft has all but announced that IE 8 will support yet another scheme.
If it decides to implement the new scheme, the Acid2 test--and all the other pages that use doctype switching--will not be rendered correctly.
A third scenario could be to hard-code the Web address of Acid2 into IE 8. This way, the page is given special treatment to make it look like the browser is passing the test. It should be obvious that this breaks the spirit of the test and doesn't warrant a passing grade.
I predict that Microsoft will implement at least one of these scenarios to limit the impact of standards. This would be damaging for the Web, and I therefore hope that my prediction is completely and absolutely wrong. The IE 8 team has shown that it can render Acid2 correctly. Now it's time for Microsoft to put its code to good use.
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Håkon Wium Lie is chief technology officer of
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If I am the maker of a product, would I be inclined to let third parties tell me how to build it? I would try to serve my audience in the best manner, while insuring that my product continued to serve my business needs as well.
MS isn't a charity, it's a business, so take a little perspective.
That said, I don't especially like IE7 because MS is continuing their trend of dumbing down the interface and I expect IE8 to continue this trend.
As to ACID3, it is going to take much more than a rendering test to make browsers a stronger application delivery platform, with a major rearchitecture of the underlying protocols and systems to provide the efficient, consistent and reliable infrastructure, web applications need.
"The IE 8 team has shown that it can render Acid2 correctly."
OK, but your own sayings tells us that they can be "faking it" thru
any one of the 3 options you posted!
Now, all that being said. What frustrates me the most, is when I click on a link and the page looks all screwy in Opera. Obviously, the HTML/CSS is broken so that it looks good in IE. I don't care!!! Why can't they all look the same, regardless of browser. Or, when I click to view my GMAIL account and Google says the browser isn't compatible and I can try at my own risk. ARGGHH!!!
Please, please, please web browser companies, try and get along. Try and iron out the differences. Try and make each other look the same, even if it means breaking your browser. I could care less about a smiley face...
However Opera is obviously biased here because of their massive lawsuit against MS.
I would ask this question:
If MS not following standards prevented Opera from succeeding, then how in the heck did Firefox do so well?
Why does Firefox decimate Opera in market share and is still growing?
Why do I use Firefox instead of IE on my computer?
If all these things are possible with big bad Microsoft in place it certainly seems Opera had the opportunity to get me to use their browser instead of Firefox.
One point I do agree with MS on is innovate don't litigate. The MS "monopoly" is not stopping Google one bit.
90+% of the market and developers have no choice but to code
for us. What are you crybabies gonna do if IE8 is not standards
compliant? Refuse to let IE8 users access your web site? Yeah,
right.
Acid2, Acid3. pppffffftttt! What's that, some new drug?
Sincerely yours,
Steve Ballmer
Opera hasn't sued Microsoft. They have sent a complaint saying that competition doesn't work for browsers.
cant tell you how sick I am of jumping through hoops for IE. I
have started recommending to all clients that they move to
Firefox or preferably Safari because its just not worth it to be on
IE. I have been holding out hope that MS would do the right
thing with IE but I can see now that its just wishful thinking.
I'm sick of conforming to MS... its time they conform to us.
If it renders in ACID then you know you'll be advertised to most effectively.
I'm happy to say that both browsers I have fail.
I install Flash on Firefox for the rare times I want to see a flash file. Default is to run IE without Flash installed, Active X disabled, no video, no animation, no sounds, and large fonts. It makes for a sensible non-animated browsing experience - but don't let the marketing folks know cause it fails the acid test
I would take a hard line approach like the EU and sue Microsoft and all other vendors that are not compliant.
IE costs every single country $1 millions per year in lost productivity - Governments and business have to pay web developers more money to make their web pages work!
THIS ISSUE EFFECTS EVERYONE!
Standards are developed for a reason - people are winging about "blu-ray vs HD-DVD", well, with web browsers, it is 10x worse.
PS - great article.
PPS - as a developer, we non built for Firefox, Opera and Safari and then spend countless hours getting the code to work on IE.
Check the source article out for yourself here:
http://alistapart.com/articles/beyonddoctype
Sneaky, innit?
/P
http://www.webstandards.org/2007/12/19/ie8-passes-acid2-test-2/
Your reporters really need to grow a brain
- Maybe we should bash web designers too
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by jscott418
January 24, 2008 3:39 AM PST
- I think Acid 2 is only as good as the web designers who follow it.
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See all 62 Comments >>I have seen countless times that two browsers even Acid 2
compliant display incorrectly. I am not sure you can blame this on
IE. Some of it is just bad web design. Plus, is it not true that Opera
has a beef with Microsoft right now. Did they not go crying to the
EU about IE being in windows. Maybe they should complain about
Safari being in OS10 too.