Microsoft Urges Developers to Prepare for IE 7

Found on eWEEK on Saturday, 16 July 2005
Browse Internet

As Microsoft inches closer to the first beta release of Internet Explorer 7, the company's development advisors have been advising Web site developers and managers to run certain tests now to prevent problems when the beta version does appear.

One area that Microsoft has clearly articulated as being one in which developers can start work now to prepare for IE 7 involves the UA (user agent) string.

First discussed in the company's Weblog in April, the code change prompted a reminder on Wednesday to developers, telling them that Microsoft continues to run across Web sites that are not expecting Version 7 of the browser, and urging them to test their UA strings.

"Developers should ensure that their sites are ready for the IE 7 user agent string and treat IE 7 just like they would IE 6," Schare said. He did not comment on what would happen if changes were not made, but said it is likely that testing issues will be discussed again on the development blog.

Why that warning? The problem are those "webmasters" who are barely able to use Golive or Frontpage; learn your basics and write it by hand (yes, I write all sites, private or commercial projects, by hand. The only extra I use is syntax highlighting). If you develop your site to be conform to the HTML/CSS specifications, there won't be many problems (unless IE ignores standards). One of the dumbest ideas is to "detect" a browser; my proxy sends a default header, no matter what browser I use. So much for that. I've seen many (often commercial) websites which tell me I don't have a valid browser. Do I upgrade as they tell me? No, I simply buy somewhere else. All that applies to those "cookies are required" sites as well.