with the new IE7, are we going to have a easier time in designing x-browser css now?

[sirpelidor]

I was looking at the IE7 blog. (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/08/22/712830.aspx)

Looks like they have cleaned up a lot of bugs, and making a big step closer to the standards.

Based on the M$ way of upgrading new software (every [fill in the blank] period of time), I guess it doesn't take long for over 90% of window user move to IE7 from their current IE.

Am I safe to assume coding CSS for x-browser will be a lot easier then ever? :D

[toicontien]

Not a lot easier. Internet Explorer 7 still retains all of the rendering problems associated with the hasLayout DOM property. Certain CSS properties trip this read-only JavaScript property, and can cause IE-Win to break or fix itself.

http://www.satzansatz.de/cssd/onhavinglayout.html

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ietechcol/cols/dnexpie/expie20050831.asp

[drhowarddrfine]

IE7 is still nine years behind web standards.

[felgall]

IE7 is still nine years behind web standards.

But that isn't as far behind as IE6 and so there should be fewer problems with it than with IE6.

What we really need right now is IE12 which should support the standards as well as Firefox 2 and Opera 9 do. Unfortunately we probably have about a 9 year wait for that browser to be released and if so it will still be 9 years behind.

[timdenty]

Ironically, the new browser doesn't make life any easier at all for us - we will still need to build websites with the older browsers in mind - I'm up to 4 versions of IE on my machine now for testing.

I've been working with IE7 for a week or so now, on sites I'm currently developing, and also looking at how some of my older sites behave in the new browser.

Interestingly, there are one or two unique things happening in IE7 only, but on the whole it is far more predictable than it's predicessor it seems.

I wonder how other people have found their pre-IE7 websites standing up to the new version?

[Sunny G]

I've been hesitant about testing my sites in IE7 for this reason. I don't think many people will update (unless they're of the elite few who run windows updates). I still will code for IE, but I'll test it in IE6 and 7. I wish everyone would just take the plunge and switch to FF!

[Paul_83uk]

Is there a way of having IE6 and IE7 on one PC??

[Kravvitz]

These explain how to have multiple versions of IE/Win on one installation of Windows.
http://www.insert-title.com/web_design/?page=articles/dev/multi_IE
http://www.positioniseverything.net/articles/multiIE.html
http://www.quirksmode.org/browsers/multipleie.html
http://mi6.ais.ucla.edu/devbriefs/running-multiple-browsers-on-a-single-workstation
http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

[WebJoel]

Hey, -if Microsoft made cars instead of operating systems, they'd release a 'new model' the year (or several years!) AFTER the target year instead of the year BEFORE...
Why people are getting so excited that IE7 has added features that have existed on other browsers for over a half-decade now is laughable... :D

[Paul_83uk]

Thanks Kravvitz - didn't realise there was so much info out there on it i had been told its not possible!?

I wonder if Microsoft don't want to catch up with FF etc on the standards side of things because if they did so many websites wouldn't display properly in there new browser so people might start looking at other browsers! just a thought!