Acid2 in IE8!

(2008-01-23) Update: While I still believe Microsoft has the code to render Acid2, I predict IE8 will not support Acid2.

(2008-08-29) Update-to-update: IE8 beta 2 renders Acid2 correctly, by default. I'm very happy to be proven wrong on this one.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that IE8 will pass the Acid2. This is truly great news! Ever since I announced Acid2 in 2005, I have lobbied for Microsoft to make the efforts required to pass the test. Congratulations to the IE8 team! I never doubted your talent and ability to make IE pass. It's great to see that your efforts will make it into a shipping product, and I look forward to testing IE8.

Also thanks to those who have worked to promote Acid2 in the years gone by. We always had high hopes for the test, but the hopes have been surpassed by reality now that all major browsers have announced support.

In the middle of all this joy and excitement, there is a concern. It seems that IE8 will not display Acid2 correctly by default. Instead of following established conventions for how to switch between quirks and standards mode, it seems that Microsoft plans to introduce a new opt-in scheme based on the <meta> tag. And, since we cannot change the Acid2 test at this stage, it will not trigger IE8 standards mode. This issue must be addressed if IE8 is to be considered to pass the test. And hard-coding URLs is not allowed :-)

First and foremost, however, this is a day for celebration. Let us all be merry, it's an important victory for the web!

howcome 2007-12-20