FortySeven Media

Jonathan Longnecker

Jonathan Longnecker

February 12, 2008

Design

Google Makes Internet Explorer Behave

Dean Edwards Squashes IE BugsOk, why haven’t I heard of this until now? Apparently Google Dean Edwards has put up a javascript library that makes IE behave like a normal, standards compliant browser. Add a link to the file in your header, and BOOM, you code like you would normally. Except no hacking for IE! You can view the entire list of fixes over at the Google Code page for the project. Naturally, this is in beta, so don’t expect everything to work perfectly yet.

Alright, I admit I haven’t tried this yet, but I plan to on my next project. Anyone else used this with success? Let me know in the comments!

Update: An alert reader has pointed out that Dean Edwards is actually the author of this code; it just happens to reside on the Google Code servers. Sorry, Dean!

Hey Google, make it more apparent who the authors are smile !

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Comments

  1. 1

    Tim Van Damme

    Feb 12, 2008

    I tried it once, but it showed some bugs (duh, it’s IE).

    Maybe it’s because I added it to a project that was already in a very advanced stage…

    Will try it again on a project I start with tomorrow though.

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  2. 2

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Feb 13, 2008

    I had seen this library, forgot it was mainly for PNG transparency issues.
    I knew there was a better way to make PNG’s work in IE.
    My designs keep wanting me to use PNG’s transparent GIF’s are just too dithered.
    I’ve rarely used PNG’s, and a current site in design is really calling for this so that I can tile a background image as wide as the sky, and still have clear PNG’s in the foreground. Just may fit the bill, thanks for the timely mention of this library.
    I was thinking it was more for javascript consistancy issues or something?

    Quote Reply

  3. 3

    Kevin Quillen

    Feb 14, 2008

    I’m shocked, I had never heard of this until now.  It would be nice to think that Google can eventually bend IE to work as natural as Firefox or Opera someday.

    As for PNG’s, you just need to know when and where to use them and plan for them possibly not being background-image.

    Lately, I have given up wasting time with IE6 and in some cases where transparent PNGs are used, I have the designer make a GIF equivalent and use a IE6 stylesheet with a few declarations in place of PNG. Sometimes you just don’t have the time.

    I can’t wait for the day where there is full on support of PNG and CSS from the IE camp… any year now…

    Quote Reply

  4. {screen_name}

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Feb 15, 2008

    @Kevin and Ty: Yeah I wish so badly background transparent PNG’s would work reliably with IE 6. I did see something that Apple was using on their site, some kind of weird .htc file, but it broke the CSS validation so I haven’t really used it much. GIF’s for backgrounds it is for now I suppose.

    I will say that this Google code does more than fix transparent PNG’s; it also seems to fix a lot of the display bugs that we usually hack the CSS for. I’m going to use it on a new project and see how it goes.

    Quote Reply

  5. 5

    Justin Meyer

    Feb 18, 2008

    This has nothing to do with Google.  It’s Dean Edwards work.  http://dean.edwards.name/

    Google Code is just a repository for open-source projects.  Please reference the author.

    Quote Reply

  6. 6

    Kevin Quillen

    Feb 18, 2008

    Okay, I see that now. It’s not very apparent upon viewing it.

    Quote Reply

  7. {screen_name}

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Feb 18, 2008

    Hey Justin, thanks for the tip. Kevin’s right, it’s not very apparent at all that he’s the author! Glad you caught that, I’ve updated the post and credited him above.

    Quote Reply

  8. 8

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    May 10, 2008

    wow..before i didnt heard about it…

    Quote Reply

  9. 9

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Jun 12, 2008

    Ohh, great information. Thanks for posting.

    Quote Reply

  10. 10

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Aug 18, 2008

    Great post. In any case, IE is way beyond obselte right now as it struggles to catch up with Opera, Firefox and Safari.!

    Quote Reply

  11. 11

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Sep 04, 2008

    Google Chrome….although new and is supposed to be faster, I have my doubts if will beat Firefox. I like it a lot!

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