Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 24th Mar 2009 23:26 UTC, submitted by inkslinger
Recently, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8, which boasted much better standards compliance than previous iterations of the browser. While it passed the Acid2 test, IE8 failed miserably in the Acid3 test, and many people criticised Microsoft for it. Microsoft Australia's Nick Hodge has stated that Microsoft purposefully decided not to support Acid3, because the test tests against draft standards.
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Member since:
2007-02-17
The last "i" hasn't been dotted and "t" crossed on the standards, so MS' approach is "we can't be bothered".
They know very well that for many standards to be "finalised" can take many years - maybe even a decade or so. A nice excuse to exercise their usual slackness towards users.
Even that isn't the case.
For all of the levels of the standards called out by the Acid3 test:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid3#Standards_tested
the last "i" has been dotted and "t" crossed for over five years, and in some cases for over eight.
DOM level 2 (as required by Acid3) was published in laate 2000. Not one letter of the standard has changed since. The fact that DOM level 3 came out in 2004 has nothing to do with a browser complying with DOM level 2 or with Acid 3.
The higher levels of these standards just add functionality on top of the lower levels, like layers on a cake.