RE: yet another broken CSS implementation

	In response to Todd's editorial on Macintosh Internet Explorer
pp1, the Mac IE team would like me to share this with you:
	---------------------------
	Todd Fahrner is quite correct in that the CSS1 support in
MacIE4pp1 is very
	similar to the support in MacIE3.01.  As he noted, we have added
some
	CSS-positioning support in MacIE4pp1, but other than that, there
were few
	visible differences in the CSS support.

	The CSS support in MacIE3.01 was developed to be compatible with
the CSS
	support in WinIE3, which, at the time it was shipped, supported
a draft of
	CSS1, and not the final recommendation.

	Our goal for MacIE4 is to as much as possible have complete CSS
	compatibility with WinIE4, which has significantly increased
their accurate
	CSS support.  This includes CSS1-core recommendation, and
portions of the
	drafts of CSS-positioning, CSS-frosting and CSS-printing.

	Aside from what is visible, MacIE4pp1 parses all the
abovementioned CSS, and
	supports manipulating it (getting and setting CSS properties of
elements)
	via JavaScript and DHTML.  Given the short product cycle to
MacIE4pp1, we
	decided it was more important/practical/efficient to put all
this
	infrastructure and foundation code in place for the entire set
of
	abovementioned properties, and put off much of the imaging until
MacIE4pp2,
	rather than incrementally building the foundation (parsing,
cascading,
	scripting) and imaging support simultaneously.  Since we were
not changing
	the CSS imaging code very much (positioning being the
exception), we decided
	to at least maintain the MacIE3.01 level of imaging of CSS
support, however
	less than perfect it was.  For the remainder of CSS support for
MacIE4,
	we're working on it.  Thanks for your patience and support. 

	Tantek Çelik <<mailto:tantekc@microsoft.com>> - MacIE4 CSS
development engineer
	Michelle Shinn <<mailto:mshinn@microsoft.com>> - MacIE4 CSS
quality engineer
	Lee Gates <<mailto:leeg@microsoft.com>> - MacIE4 program manager

-----------------
and, of course, me-
	Chris Wilson <mailto:cwilso@microsoft.com> - Windows Internet
Explorer Stylesheet Developer

	-Chris
Chris Wilson
cwilso@microsoft.com
***

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Todd Fahrner [SMTP:fahrner@pobox.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, July 30, 1997 2:21 PM
> To:	www-style@w3.org
> Subject:	yet another broken CSS implementation
> 
> I'm sorry to report that IE4b1 for Mac is just as useless for CSS1 as
> IE3.
> The Mac team appears to have changed nothing. They have, however,
> added
> some support for the still-unfinished CSS-Positioning draft,
> presumably in
> order to participate better in the "Active Push Channel Dynamic HTML"
> flying-headline hoopla. They've added some more chrome to the UI, too,
> forcing about 30 pixels of left-margin on <body>.
> 
> In terms of allocation of engineering resources, I'd say this is like
> using
> a helicopter to attach a glitter-encrusted weathervane to a burning
> barn.
> 
> I sure hope they just pushed this out in time for the MacWorld expo,
> and
> this isn't for real.
> 
> __________________
> Todd Fahrner
> mailto:fahrner@pobox.com
> http://www.verso.com/
>

Received on Monday, 4 August 1997 14:24:59 UTC