Microsoft came as expected with the very first publicly available test version of Internet Explorer 9 in the company's MIX conference held in Las Vegas this week.
The browser is in no way suitable for everyday use, but shows that the promises Microsoft came up with last fall about improved performance and better support for web standards was meant seriously.
The test version has a very simple user interface that strictly speaking only allows you to open individual pages. The missing tabs, address bar, and most of the functionality that you expect from older IE versions.
Dean Hachamovitch, who heads the IE team to Microsoft, told the press that this greater degree will be in place when IE9 approaching the beta stage. The current version is called "Platform Preview" and is primarily intended to demonstrate how Microsoft has so far done with the technologies under the shell.
Microsoft promises to provide new test versions of some eight weeks in the future.
It may still be available in the user interface is a set of different viewing modes, which will make it possible to view websites in IE9 in the same way as they would have been viewed in IE5, IE7 and IE8.
- When you publish a platform that promises Mon to developers that the code will still run, "said Hachamovitch, which explains why this constant is included. Microsoft has been criticized for providing such functionality in IE8 since it can reduce the incentives developers have to update existing websites according to web standards.
In normal display mode to IE9 however, have much better support for more web standards than its predecessors. The biggest news is perhaps support for vector graphics language SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). This will give Web developers greater opportunities to create 2D graphics in your browser which can also be manipulated using JavaScript.
It seems that Microsoft actually going to invest heavily to make 2D graphics to an attractive opportunity. The comprehensive presentation engine in IE9 is built DirectX, which enables the browser is far better access to your PC's graphics card than before. This allows including SVG-based graphics can be animated with very good performance.
The same also applies HTML5 video. Hachamovitch and Windows chief Steven Sinofsky demonstrated, among other things, that the playing of two simultaneous video with HD resolution can be done with far less impact of the PC's CPU than the Google Chrome uses only one video.
Another demo of the powerful improved graphics performance in IE9 is on this page. The difference is especially noticeable on machines with a usable graphics cards, when one increases the number of browser logos displayed.
IE9 thus has support for both audio and video elements from HTML5. The browser supports at least preliminary codec H.264, AAC and MP3. It should be able to play videos that offer in HTML5 version of Youtube, but although we tried our checked just that, the videos were still played in the Flash-based player.
Thus, the support for canvas element in place, although the classic demo of this not working quite smoothly.
Support for CSS-rule border-radius is among what is now included in the test version of IE9. Now it is certainly possible to see that there is an O, even though support for gradients and shadows still are deficient or absent. This may, however, due to the use of Opera and Firefox-specific CSS rules. The result is seen regardless below.
Part of the purpose of the fabled "Acid tests has been to show how bad it has been for the Internet Explorer's support for Web standards. Several browsers completes the latest tests, Acid3, with aplomb, while IE8 makes it very badly, with 20 of 100 points. The test version of IE9 now manages 55 of the 100 tests, but Hachamovitch said that this result will improve as more support for the standards are in place.
The test version of IE9 manages 55 of 100 split tests in Acid3 test.
The most in IE9 be built according to Hachamovitch up again from scratch. This also applies the new JavaScript engine, "Chakra", to be able to run JavaScript much faster than today's edition. According Hachamovitch, the engine is optimized to run on multicore systems and "compile" JavaScript in the background on a different core than it or the rest of the browser uses.
It loves now that IE9 to handle XHTML documents correctly.
One thing that is actually in place in the test version, is the developer tools. These have been extended with a new tab for the inspection of network traffic that is generated when a Web page is opened or refreshed in the browser. Here you can partly see the order and time measurement of the items that are downloaded when you open a Web page.
IE9s development tools has been expanded with a new network-related tab.
The first publicly available test version of IE9 can now be downloaded to Windows Vista and Windows 7 from this page. The browser works side by side with other IE versions.
There will be no IE9 version of Windows XP. According Hachamovitch due to this that the operating system lacks the necessary capabilities in both security and performance.
On the same page as the test version is available for download, Microsoft has posted links to a number of demonstrations of news that has been implemented so far.
During the press conference yesterday Hachamovitch did not say anything about what future plans the company has for IE9 or what's expected release date. But little suggests that the launch would take place before the early end of the next six months. It gives Microsoft time NOK to further improve Web standards support. But at the same time it provides Microsoft's competitors are able to increase the lead again. For example, it is well known that both Mozilla and Opera Software are working to build in support for hardware accelerated 2D graphics in browsers, but in addition to web browsers also support for 3D graphics through WebGL, an emerging web standards, where Microsoft, at least not yet is a contributor.
