The MSIE team has asked for input on features that the next version of Internet Explorer should support. Please take a moment to help them out.

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Recently Erik Arvidsson lamented the lack of JavaScript progress in IE 7. Strictly speaking he's right, of course: there are few JavaScript bug fixes in the new release, because Microsoft has made CSS fixes its priority. Microsoft has done what it's promised, and it never promised us JavaScript fixes for this release.

That said, everybody knows there are a few things lacking in IE's JavaScript support. The point of this entry is to start creating a list with specific wishes for JavaScript improvements in IE. When it's done and when Microsoft starts thinking about the next version we can present it.

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In a project I'm currently working on I encountered an Explorer bug that depends on the window you open a page with.

I post it here because I know that MSIE team members occasionally read my blog, and I have the faint hope that can they solve this bug, especially since it's messing up one of my projects (and, after all, what in the world is more important than my projects going smoothly <grin>, particularly when I have another important and exciting project that should be finished quickly but is held up by this bug).

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Yesterday Microsoft released a new beta version of IE 7, confusingly called "IE 7 beta 2 preview - released on March 20th". I wish they'd named it beta 3.

Download it here. I haven't done any tests yet and I don't know when I'll be able to.

Despite being terrifyingly busy I found the time for some basic IE 7 beta checks this weekend. In general all CSS issues that Microsoft promised to solve have been solved, with the partial exception of the [attr] selector. The beta refuses to honour p[align=right] {font-style: italic;}. I updated my CSS compatibility table for the second time in two weeks.

I also went through all Explorer Windows bug reports and determined whether they were solved in the beta or not. I found that 58 old bugs have not been solved. See the Explorer 5-6 Windows and the Explorer 7 beta 2 category pages for more information. I also took the opportunity to remove a few reports that were orphaned for more than two months.

Finally, in JavaScript nothing much seems to have changed, although the crash on the normalize() method has been solved. I haven't yet done the rigourous DOM tests, that'll have to wait for another time.

The release of Explorer 7 beta 2 has raised some questions, especially about maintaining the various IE versions you may have on your computer. Basically the beta overwrites IE 6, and Joe Maddalone's Multiple IE instructions don't work, but you can uninstall the beta quite easily and IE 6 is restored to you.

I suppose I do a few people a favour when I write down clear installation and uninstallation descriptions and instructions. Here it goes:

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Explorer 7 beta 2 seems to be available. I'm currently downloading it, so I have no test data yet.

I added an "Explorer 7 beta 2" category to the Bug Report. Please report any bug you find; the MSIE team needs you.

In a recent article on the IE Blog, Justin Rodgers talks about further CSS improvements in the ever more impatiently awaited IE 7 beta 2. His message is that CSS hacks will start to break in IE 7, and I fully agree.

Nearly two years ago I warned against the excessive use of CSS hacks, because I envisioned a situation like this. Web developers who rely on CSS hacks are going to have serious problems.

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As everybody and his dog know by now, IE 7 Beta 1 has been released. Read Chris Wilson's entry over on the IE Blog for the details. Since I do not have a copy of it, I will not discuss it in detail. It is my strict policy to discuss only browser features and bugs I've actually seen for myself. Expect a full report as soon as I've got it installed on my computer, but not before.

The MSIE team seems to have used my site for bug testing, although almost all discussed bugs come from Position is Everything, and rightly so, since Big John and Holly Bergevin have far more interesting and detailed bug reports than my own CSS section.

Meanwhile this good news is being overshadowed by an apparently quite vicious campaign against Molly Holzschlag, who seems to have had the temerity to suggest that the IE 7 beta is actually good news for web developers and the standards movement in general, a message that encounters quite a bit of resistance among web standards fascists.

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Over on the IE Blog Chris Wilson gives a few details on the upcoming Explorer 7 beta.

Two months ago I said that I didn't expect the Explorer 7 beta to contain solutions to CSS problems. Clearly I was wrong: Wilson announced support for alpha PNG channels and a solution for the Peekaboo and Guillotine bugs, and he indicated more goodies are to come.

So the Microsoft team is taking the opportunity to not only beef up security, but also CSS support. I'm curious, for one. Expect a full report on this site when the beta is available; and let's hope the CSS solutions we found for the Peekaboo and Guillotine bugs won't misfire in the new Explorer 7.

In an interesting post in the IE Blog, lead program manager Chris Wilson explains the current state of affairs in the touchy realm of "IE and standards support". It's an interesting read, and he makes a few cogent points. He also calls for specific requests about standards IE should support, and I'm happy to oblige.

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Today Microsoft, in fact Bill Gates himself, has officially announced Explorer 7, the fabled successor to Explorer 6 that everybody seems to have been talking about since 2002. Before jumping in the air from joy, let's see what Microsoft says and what it doesn't say.

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