Internet Explorer 10 Goes Where No Browser Has Gone Before (So Says Microsoft!)
HTML5 is here and is reshaping the way websites using our cheap hosting platforms are developed and designed. Web browser developers are continually updating to support HTML5, including Internet Explorer (IE). Past versions of IE have caused a few headaches for web developers so on that note, how many HTML5 features do you think are supported in IE9 – the current version? According to HTML5Test.com, IE9 earned 138 points out of a possible 500 – ouch! Compared to 437 for Google Chrome and 345 for Firefox, that trusty browser most web designers love.
However, as everybody knows by now, Microsoft has won a lot of admirers with the direction of its new Windows 8 Operating System and the latest iterations of Explorer; which are more strictly adhering to W3C standard guidelines.
Thus, when running the beta version of Internet Explorer 10 through HTML5Test.com, it shoots up the scoring ladder with a score of 319. The adherence is HTML5 is becoming more important, especially as more worldwide users starting adopting a myriad of tablets and smartphones to peruse web content hosted on dedicated servers and cloud hosting platforms. HTML5 promises to reshape the browser as a type of operating system, which means that applications will be able to run inside IE10 or Firefox without needing to download an app or e.g. Flash Player.
HTML5 allows developers to target the widest and most diverse range of users and tablets without having to write forking code, which makes applications more complex, costly and oftentimes slower.
Thus, said Microsoft, IE10 continues IE9’s precedent of enabling web applications to do more in the browser without plug-ins.
“It also continues the pattern of offloading work to the parts of a PC that are best suited for them, like the GPU for graphics, and different processor cores for background compilation of JavaScript.”
IE10 can run in both a desktop and a mobile phone, where it’s called Metro. Both use the same rending engine, but because it’s Smartphone-centric, it’s much faster than previous versions of IE. It has to be in order to load quickly on phone with smaller CPU and RAM footprints than their desktop parents.
“Maybe even more significantly, IE10 isn’t just the browser for Windows 8, it actually becomes the underlying engine which powers Metro style applications that use HTML5 and JavaScript,” said IT Pro Portal. “When you realize that, it becomes clear that Internet Explorer 10 is a crucial piece of the Windows 8 puzzle.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft said that beautiful and interactive Web applications are easier to deliver with support for several new technologies like CSS3 Positioned Floats, HTML5 Drag-drop, File Reader API, Media Query Listeners and initial support for HTML5 forms.
It’s also, according to Microsoft, the first browser to support several new performance APIs coming out the W3C working groups.
“Because of this approach to producing Web technologies, Microsoft will support IE10 for 10 years after its release, honoring the same product life-cycle commitments as Windows itself. This blog post (link) describes some of the scenarios and customers for which this is important.”