This Forum is IE8 Incompatable!

[vdeane]

I just wanted to let the administrators know that this forum does not render properly with IE8 (at least with the HighWay theme).  Some of the text renders in the wrong places.  I'm currently running the site in compatibility mode.

[un1]

A lot of sites aren't apparently.

[Voyager]

If it's not working, then try the new theme.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?theme=19

[SSOWorld]

NOT the final solution here, but then again Microsoft seems never to get the damn thing right 

[vdeane]

It's just a text positioning issue anyways (compatibility view fixes it).  The reason for it is that IE8 requires that web developers adhere strictly to the current standards (as in currently written; the ones on the acid 2 test) and does not tolerate errors.  Don't blame Microsoft for the fact that many web developers don't update their code for new versions of IE.

[corco]

I think the burden should be on Microsoft to develop a product that is compatible with the existing internet, not the other way around.

From an end user perspective, which is what Microsoft hopefully cares about, that's definitely the case

[vdeane]

If they did that, we would still be stuck with IE6.  Many sites just try to detect IE and give it a special version, if they develop for multiple browsers at all.  This means that if MS releases a more standards compliant version, problems will develop.

[corco]

You can still design and implement backwards compatibility though. It works in Firefox.

The internet does not and should not revolve around Microsoft Internet Explorer. If I like website x, and website x doesn't work in IE, I'm not going to use IE.

Innovation and development will still happen if Microsoft makes it possible for IE8 to accept more advanced coding then IE 7 or 6, and those sites that want to progress still will.

[vdeane]

It does.  However, it won't accept the workarounds in its default (strict standards) mode.  It does have a list of sites that won't work and will render by default in compatibility mode (the mode IE7 uses by default), but this site is obviously not well known enough to be included in that list.  With IE8 it is possible for the user to change which mode a site uses, which is what I've done for this forum.

[Chris]

I've heard Internet Explorer didn't follow the official guidelines, and it does now, but many sites are still adjusted to the earlier versions of Internet Explorer.

[Voyager]

This forum adheres to every code regulation, I updated it recently. There's a slight error that I'm working on fixing that is probably the reason for the text misalignment.

[un1]

It isn`t the error your thinking of. In the theme coding, it lists all of the browsers that are compatible with the theme, since no SMF version is meant for IE 8 your going to have to wait until 1.1.9 for it to be fixed properly.

[Voyager]

I thought 1.1.8 was...

[un1]

Well it is actually the theme files, if someone uses the 1.1.7 theme files to make a new theme then it is only compatible with browsers compatible with 1.1.7. If someone uses the 1.1.8 theme files then the theme is compatible with all of the compatible browsers of 1.1.8.

Not too sure what the new theme is for though, guessing that it is probably 1.1.7 because most themes are.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

It's not that this site is incompatible with IE8, more accurately it's that IE8 is incompatible with most of the Internet.

Microsoft FTW 

[vdeane]

Actually, IE8 follows the W3C standards to the letter (that's the ones that are ratified, not the proposed ones).  It renders the acid2 test perfectly.  The problem is that many sites are not constructed to the standards.  Of all the sites I visit, I've only put three in compatibility mode* and in all cases it's just for minor text stuff that I could easily live with if I had too.

If Microsoft would force people to upgrade to IE8 or even IE7 these problems would be solved via the death of IE6, which is quite likely the cause of most compatibility problems on the web today (with IE7 causing the rest due to its incomplete CSS implementation).

*This does not include Microsoft's list of sites that are known to not work in standards mode and render in compatibility mode by default.