The Pixel Experience

So although it seems like only a couple of months ago that Microsoft released IE7, it seems that IE8 has been slated to hit the tubes sometime around April ‘08.  Now normally that wouldn’t get me going, but the rumors are, that it could be pretty good at fulfilling web standards.  Now that really excites me! No more writing confusing CSS hacks, write for one browser, works for all, etc…

Don’t get me wrong, this is great news, but it’ll still take a couple of years before the websites we design don’t need to be compatible with IE6/7, but hey - at least it’s something to look forward to!

The one thing in the linked article that does concern me comes from here:

We must deliver improved standards support and backwards compatibility so that IE8 (1) continues to work with the billions of pages on the web today that already work in IE6 and IE7 and (2) makes the development of the next billion pages, in an interoperable way, much easier. We’ll blog more, and learn more, about this during the IE8 beta cycle.

So basically, they admit that they broke the web.  But this raises a bigger question: ‘Can they really build a new browser that supports both websites hacked for IE6/7 and web standards…?’

Many web designers have long shunned the application of CSS within email, and I’m part of that crowd.

Like websites, email is one of those technologies for which the output must be predictable for the designer whatever software the user chooses to read it on. However, unlike web pages this is harder to implement. The differences in the way that the different browsers on the market implement CSS is definitely decreasing, even if Microsoft are still struggling to get their act together. On the other hand, the different email browsers have historically had a very limited success rate at implimenting HTML/CSS, and I’ve heard no evidence to say that this is improving.

Jeffrey Zeldman (another critic of HTML email) recently wrote about the Email Standards Project, an effort to try and get programmers of email software all pointed in the right direction. Now I’ve only had a brief look at the project’s website, but a couple of things concern me already. Firstly, the home page has a running list of how the more popular email clients perfom, and I question the accuracy of this list. Now as I’ve already said I don’t use HTML when composing an email, so I thought I’d give it a go. I use Apple Mail, and after using Leopard for about a month now, I thought I’d try out the Apple designed stationary. So if anything should work this should, Apple Mail is listed by the ESP as having an excellent performance, and I’m using Apple stationary that comes with that email client, and here are the results.

Hmmmm….

Secondly, until one or two big name email clients sign up to the ESP, this could all be a lot of hot air.

I really want this project to work, but don’t really have a place to start! Can I really trust the ESP when they give a grade of Excellent to software that can’t even perform with it’s own designs?!

Oh dear, I’ve written yet another negative post. I really don’t want this blog to be full of rants written by a grumpy developer, so I’ll try and find something more positive for next time!