Internet Explorer Turns 15
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 16th Aug 2010 14:11 UTC
Internet Explorer With the release of Internet Explorer's first beta upon is, it's a good time to look back upon the history of Microsoft's web browser. As it turns out, Internet Explorer turns 15 today, with the first version released August 16, 1995. Pretty turbulent history, there.
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RE: Comment by Kroc
by Laurence on Mon 16th Aug 2010 14:43 UTC in reply to "Comment by Kroc"
Laurence
Member since:
2007-03-26

Internet Explorer 4 was good. I'm not old enough to have been there when the browser was just getting on its feet, but I remember Netscape 2, then IE3 and remember the wow of IE4. Microsoft went on overdrive to make certain Netscape was done in. They added frames, scripting, DHTML, CSS--everything. In the end they didn't need to; a combination of bundling IE and Netscape failing to update Netscape 4.7 until Netscape 6 several years later sealed Netscape's doom.

Frames existed before IE4. I remember using frames on both IE3 and Netscape Navigator 3 (maybe before then, but I can't recall that far back). In fact, I remember being wound up at IE4 upon release as it broke all of my frames!

[edit]
Yes, frames were around before IE4, but the standard changed (or the implimentation was only then standardised by w3c) with HTML4 (which was IE4 supported):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(World_Wide_Web)#History



In a way, we have benefited from the IE monopoly in one way. I've learnt web development during a time where it was easier than it is now. There was only one browser to test in, and the browser didn't change for over five years, meaning we all had lots of time to focus on polishing our skills, than keeping up with a constantly moving platform. It must be very hard getting into web design right now because it's an absolutely confusing array of incompleteness.

That's only true if you learned web development in the early 00s.
If you was building sites before then, then it was a complete nightmare. Browsers were not only incompatible with each other, they were incompatible with different versions of themselves!


I believe that HTML5 is the next C++. It's messy, clunky, you can shoot yourself in the foot easily with it, but it's the common language by which most apps get written.

Interesting analogy. Thanks for sharing ;)

Edited 2010-08-16 14:50 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[2]: Comment by Kroc
by Kroc on Mon 16th Aug 2010 14:48 in reply to "RE: Comment by Kroc"
Kroc Member since:
2005-11-10

Frames existed before IE4


Thanks for the correction. IE4 did add a lot of stuff, I probably thought Frames were new in IE4 because of the scripting capability where I first used them. I wonder if IE3 had iframes?

That's only true if you learned web development in the early 00s.


I was really fortunate and started in 2000/1, when you could just about ignore that Netscape existed and get away with it unscathed.

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[3]: Comment by Kroc
by Laurence on Mon 16th Aug 2010 14:54 in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by Kroc"
Laurence Member since:
2007-03-26

Thanks for the correction. IE4 did add a lot of stuff, I probably thought Frames were new in IE4 because of the scripting capability where I first used them. I wonder if IE3 had iframes?


IIRC iframes came a little latter and was original another Internet Explorer specific tab.

I can't recall exactly what release first saw iframes, but it was either IE4 or IE5

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[3]: Comment by Kroc
by SnowBuddha on Mon 16th Aug 2010 16:12 in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by Kroc"
SnowBuddha Member since:
2009-04-17

Ah-HAH! So you're the reason I had problems with webpages in Netscape back then!

Never used IE. I road the sinking Netscape ship until Mozilla came around. Still don't use it, but seeing MS actually doing something instead of sitting around twiddling their thumbs is nice.

Reply Parent Score: 4

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RE[3]: Comment by Kroc
by kittynipples on Tue 17th Aug 2010 17:06 in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by Kroc"
kittynipples Member since:
2006-08-02

Microsoft did invent the <iframe> tag, and it was introduced in IE4.

Reply Parent Score: 1