Link tags: internetexplorer

Google Search no longer supports Internet Explorer 11 - 9to5Google

Keep this link handy to share with your boss or client. It is almost certainly not worth your while optimising for Internet Explorer.

Note: Google aren’t turning IE users away. Instead they’ll get a reduced scriptless experience. That’s the way to do it. Remember: module and nomodule are your friends for cutting the mustard.

Importantly, Google has not simply cut off Internet Explorer 11 from using Google Search, leaving people unable to search the web. Instead, Internet Explorer customers are now shown a rudimentary “fallback experience” for Google Search, which can perform basic searches but isn’t as fully featured as Google is on modern browsers.

Is Safari the new Internet Explorer?

The transcript from the latest episode of the HTTP 203 podcast is well worth perusing.

• Internet Explorer halted development, no innovation. Would you say Safari is the new IE?
• There was loads of stuff missing. Is Safari the new IE?
• My early career was built on knowing the bugs in IE6 and how to solve them. Is Safari the new IE?
• Internet Explorer 6, it had a really slow JavaScript engine, performance was bad in that browser. Is Safari the new IE?
• Internet Explorer had a fairly cavalier attitude towards web standards. Is Safari the new IE?
• Back in the day that we had almost no communication whatsoever. Is Safari the new IE?
• Slow-release cycle. Is Safari the new IE?

Dropping Support For IE11 Is Progressive Enhancement · The Ethically-Trained Programmer

Any time or effort spent getting your JavaScript working in IE11 is wasted time that could be better spent making a better experience for users without JavaScript.

I agree with this approach.

With a few minor omissions and links, you can create a site that works great in modern browsers with ES6+ and acceptably in browsers without JavaScript. This approach is more sustainable for teams without the resources for extensive QA, and more beneficial to users of nonstandard browsers. Trying to recreate functionality that already works in modern browsers in IE11 is thankless work that is doomed to neglect.

History of the Web - YouTube

I really enjoyed this trip down memory lane with Chris:

From the Web’s inception, an ancient to contemporary history of the Web.

A Non-Business Case for Supporting Old Browsers « Texte | ovl – code & design

Supporting Internet Explorer 11 doesn’t mean you need to give it the same experience as a modern browser:

Making sure (some of) your code works in older browsers, does not mean all functionality has to work everywhere. But, mind you, ninety percent of web development means putting text and images in boxes.

And to be honest, there is no reason to not enable this everywhere. Same for form submissions. Make it boring. Make it solid. And sprinkle delight on it.

The “P” in Progressive Enhancement stands for “Pragmatism” - Andy Bell

With a Progressive Enhancement mindset, support actually means support. We’re not trying to create an identical experience: we’re creating a viable experience instead.

Also with Progressive Enhancement, it’s incredibly likely that your IE11 user, or your user on a low-powered device, or even your user on a poor connection won’t notice that they’re experiencing a “minor” experience because it’ll just work for them. This is the magic, right there. Everyone’s a winner.

How to Kill IE11 - What the Deaths of IE6 and IE8 Tell Us About Killing IE | Mike Sherov

An interesting look at the mortality causes for Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 8, and what they can tell us for the hoped-for death of Internet Explorer 11.

I disagree with the conclusion (that we should actively block IE11—barring any good security reasons, I don’t think that’s defensible), but I absolutely agree that we shouldn’t be shipping polyfills in production just for IE11. Give it your HTML. Give it your CSS. Withhold modern JavaScript. If you’re building with progressive enhancement (and you are, right?), then giving IE11 users a sub-par experience is absolutely fine …it’s certainly better than blocking them completely.

The Ecological Impact of Browser Diversity | CSS-Tricks

This is a terrific spot-on piece by Rachel. I firmly believe that healthy competition and diversity in the browser market is vital for the health of the web (which is why I’m always saddened and frustrated to hear web developers wish for a single monocultural rendering engine).

The Slow Death of Internet Explorer and the Future of Progressive Enhancement · An A List Apart Article

Oliver Williams makes the case—and shows the code—for delivering only HTML to old versions of Internet Explorer, sparing them from the kind of CSS and JavaScript that they can’t deal with it. Seems like a sensible approach to me (assuming you’re correctly building in a layered way so that your core content is delivered in markup).

Rather than transpiling and polyfilling and hoping for the best, we can deliver what the person came for, in the most resilient, performant, and robust form possible: unadulterated HTML. No company has the resources to actively test their site on every old version of every browser. Malfunctioning JavaScript can ruin a web experience and make a simple page unusable. Rather than leaving users to a mass of polyfills and potential JavaScript errors, we give them a basic but functional experience.

A New Way to Test Internet Explorer on OS X, iOS and Android | Rey Bango

This a great step-by-step walkthrough from Rey on setting up a remote version of Internet Explorer for testing on Mac.

The Mobile Web should just work for everyone - IEBlog

One more reason why you should never sniff user-agent strings: Internet Explorer is going to lie some more. Can’t really blame them though—if developers didn’t insist on making spurious conclusions based on information in the user-agent string, then browsers wouldn’t have to lie.

Oh, and Internet Explorer is going to parse -webkit prefixed styles. Again, if developers hadn’t abused vendor prefixes, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

The impending crisis that is Windows XP and IE 8 by Troy Hunt

A good explanation of the litany of woes that comes from Internet Explorer 8 being the highest that users of Windows XP can upgrade to. It’s a particularly woeful situation if you are a web developer attempting to provide parity. But there is hope on the horizon:

2013 will see the culmination of all these issues; support for IE 8 will drop of rapidly, users of XP will find an increasingly broken web, the cost of building software in XP organisations will increase.

Techniques For Gracefully Degrading Media Queries - Smashing Magazine

There are some inaccuracies and misrepresentations in here, but on the whole this is a pretty good round-up of your options when dealing with responsive design in older browsers.

The Paciello Group Blog » Google Chrome frame - accessibility black hole

Using Google Chrome Frame in IE will give users of assistive technology the same shitty to non-existent experience they would get in the actual Google Chrome browser.

Digg the Blog » Blog Archive » Much Ado About IE6

Trammell outlines the thoughtful, research-based approach that Digg will be taking in phasing out IE6 support.

Persuading Microsoft to Implement Canvas « Processing.js Blog

The 26 step process required to add +1 to a feature request in IE. Franz Kafka is alive and well and living in Redmond.

isolani - Web Standards: IE8 Blacklist: forcing standards rendering opt-in

Bend over 'cause Microsoft is about to stick it to us standards-savvy developers. Again.

Microsoft breaks IE8 interoperability promise | The Register

Håkon is not happy with the default settings in IE8. Deep in the preferences, "Display intranet sites in Compatibility View" is checked.

Valid downlevel-revealed conditional comments | 456 Berea Street

Keep this one handy in case you have to use conditional comments to hide something from Internet Explorer.