Web Info & Tutorials

Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of the IE team, has posted that IE 8 now renders the Acid 2 face:

I’m delighted to tell you that on Wednesday, December 12, Internet Explorer correctly rendered the Acid2 page in IE8 standards mode. While supporting the features tested in Acid2 is important for many reasons, it is just one of several milestones for the interoperability, standards compliance, and backwards compatibility that we’re committed to for this release. We will blog more on these topics. Here’s a relevant video.

For IE8, we want to communicate facts, not aspirations. We’re posting this information now because we have real working code checked in and we’re confident about delivering it in the final product. We’re listening to the feedback about IE, and at the same time, we are committed to responsible disclosure and setting expectations properly. Now that we’ve run the test on multiple machines and seen it work, we’re excited to be able to share definitive information.

While blog posts and links to videos are a good start, publicly available code is even better. We will have a lot more information available at sessions at MIX08 and will release a beta of IE8 in the first half of calendar 2008.

Mary Jo Foley got on the phone with Dean where she found out:

Hachamovitch also said that Microsoft will release a public beta build of IE 8 some time in the first half of 2008.

Internal Microsoft IE 8 build passes the Acid standards testHachamovitch denied that Microsoft’s decision to disclose this week IE 8’s planned standards compliance was related to Opera’s antitrust suit launched last week. Hachamovitch said Microsoft has been working on making IE 8 Acid2-compliant since IE 8 planning began.

John Dyer has created his own 3D panorama trick in JavaScript.

His code takes a large panorama, and “creates a series of div columns, and then puts copies of the image in each column. As you move your mouse across the image, it stretches the columns vertically along a sin curve to fake the 3D look.”

Java and JavaScript share the first four letters of their name, and have an entangled past. Joe Walker has an interesting little take on the evolution of the languages that shows some mirror images such as:

It’s interesting that the current simple version of JavaScript already has the features (i.e. closures) that people want to keep out of Java otherwise it will become too complex, and that Java already has some of the features (i.e. classical inheritance) that people want to keep out of JavaScript, otherwise it will become to complex.

And some thoughts on JS2:

With JavaScript, people see a neat, compact language and fear it turning into Java. The good news is that it won’t fully turn into Java because JavaScript already has closures and no one thinks they should be taken out ;-) The danger of the “features over complexity” argument, is that it can be applied indiscriminately, creating a monster, and the fear is that JavaScript will become a monster.

I’m gradually coming round to the opinion that many of the changes proposed to JavaScript actually reduce complexity. There are nearly as many frameworks that add classical inheritance to JavaScript as there are Ajax frameworks. Having one solution that we can all agree on can’t be a bad thing even if you prefer prototypal inheritance.

Sick of those straightforward lines that your book follows? Rounded corners crapper exclusive do so much? Now, a newborn agency is here to support you out: CSS Text Wrap.

The CSS Text Wrapper allows you to easily attain HTML book twine in shapes another than meet a rectangle. You crapper attain book twine around curves, zig-zags, or some you want. All you hit to do is entertainer the mitt and correct edges beneath and then double the generated cipher to your website

On the fling side, you intend a pick of inline HTML (below), XHTML with CSS classes, or JavaScript.

Isomorphic Software, the consort behindhand SmartClient, gave a speech at the past TAE Boston, and we meet publicised the video for every to see:

Abstract

This speech helps developers meliorate eloquent the playing advantages of Ajax to management, and support direction frame developers on whether their theoretical choices are the correct ones. In addition, a starry-eyed exteroception of the forthcoming of covering utilization module be presented, including a demonstrate this time.

Bio: Alex Shvedof, COO and co-founder, Isomorphic Software is also digit of the architects of the SmartClient Ajax platform. He has played different roles at hi-tech companies ranging from project code structure to grouping and meshwork security. Alex co-founded Isomorphic in 2000 to attain zero-install flush scheme applications a reality.

Watch the presentation.