"Renewed Commitment to Web Standards
A key change in Microsoft's plans is—just announced this week—that IE8 will default to standards-compliance mode, rather than legacy support for previous browser versions. "Compatibility is key," said Wilson.
"We will give you the best approximation of the standard that we can," said Wilson. But if you've written apps to work only with certain versions and features, all is not lost. Authors can upgrade their content when they're ready; in the meantime, they can tell the browser to use "old rendering."
Importantly, IE8 is complying more with CSS standards. "We have the goal of having full and complete support for CSS 2.1," said Wilson. "This is a big goal." To that end, IE8 has a new layout engine with a great typographic foundation that's designed with CSS 2.1 in mind, and clear principles of compliance and interoperability. "Yes, this is the end of hasLayout," said Wilson to audience applause, "Though we still have it in 'quirks mode.'"
With IE expecting Web applications to conform to W3C standards, and the commitment to full CSS compliance, says author and Web standards activist Molly Holzschlag, "It will make life easier for everybody." Developers will be easier to develop, to scale and to maintain since less time will need to be invested in making an app run in a particular browser instead of writing great software. "You won't have to train people to do things to get around IE," said Holzschlag, who also pointed out that IE6 will still be around for a long time (so the cussing will continue for a while).
Down 'n Dirty Developer Details
...IE8 is also unlocking the Web for accessibility reasons, said Wilson, to support W3C ARIA specifications and make advanced Web content accessible. Many Web 2.0 and Ajax applications, explained Wilson, are hard or impossible to use when using an assistive technology like a screen reader. "
