Internet Explorer 9: A Fresh Start, With HTML5
3/17/2010 12:35:00 AM
kenmouse
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On March 16, Microsoft is making a first developer preview of Internet Explorer (IE) 9 available for download from IETestDrive.com.
Ninth time's the charm, sometimes! At least that's Microsoft's hope with IE9, which they've just announced at Mix, brings new HTML5 support (including HTML5 video!), hardware-accelerated graphics for text and images, and a totally new JavaScript engine. Constantly updating.
Microsoft issued a release just before the actual announcement and demo at the Mix conference, which is just getting under way—here's what we can pick out so far. (More to come, after the demos.)
HTML5
HTML5 is basically the talk of the town right now, assuming your town is populated exclusively by web developers and Apple apologists. It's magic! It's going to save the internet! It's going to kill Flash! Etc. But really, it's more subtle than that: It's the next version of the entire language that underlies the web—HTML—and it supports a lot of interesting features, which will make websites behave more like apps. Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera have pretty much left Microsoft in the dust in terms for HTML5 support. Until now! Here's what Microsoft says IE9 will support:
• h.264 video: When people talk about HTML5 killing Flash, this is what they're talking about. Some video sites, like YouTube and Vimeo, have been experimenting with video playback that doesn't require a plugin to play. h.264 is the codec standard the big sites have chosen to go with, and now Internet Explorer will support it.
• Embedded Audio: Just as the video tag allows for video to be embedded directly into a page without a plugin, the audio tag allows audio files to be embedded straight into the page. IE9 supports MP3/AAC codecs.
• Scalable Vector Graphics: Scalable vector graphics allow for the creation of certain types of graphics that scale perfectly—because they're drawn as vectors, not plain images. It can also allow for rudimentary, Flash-style animations.
• CSS3: CSS is essentially what the web is formatted with, and Internet Explorer's various CSS compatibilities have been maddening since, well, forever. IE9 supports more standards-based CSS3—including Selectors, Namespaces, Color, Values, Backgrounds and Borders and fonts—and should support more before launch. They're finally trying, is the point.
The New JavaScript Engine
Modern web apps are loaded with JavaScript, to the point that new browsers are practically measured by how fast they can render it. (A faster JavaScript engine means sites like Gmail, Facebook and even Gizmodo don't just load faster, but run more quickly.) Here's how Microsoft says IE9 measures up right now:
Keep in mind that this is a WebKit-designed test, and that IE9 isn't ready for release yet—Microsoft says they'll still improve the rendering speed. And really, while IE9 might not outpace the fastest browsers out there, it's close. And hilariously faster than IE8.
2D Acceleration
Internet Explorer nine adds DirectX video acceleration for SVG graphics and even text rendering, which will make some SVG graphics and CSS3 rendering faster, but also applies to text rendering, which makes the entire browsing process a bit smoother.
HTML5 video rendering is much, much smoother than in Chrome (demonstrated onstage), simply because of Direct2D video rendering—Microsoft was able to demonstrate two 720p HD videos playing smoothly in the same browser windows, while Chrome choked on just one. Getting this acceleration doesn't require any extra code on the website's part.
Additionally, some Javascript rendering can also be offloaded to the GPU, which, again, help speed along rendering and responsiveness for complicated web apps.
Ninth time's the charm, sometimes! At least that's Microsoft's hope with IE9, which they've just announced at Mix, brings new HTML5 support (including HTML5 video!), hardware-accelerated graphics for text and images, and a totally new JavaScript engine. Constantly updating.
Microsoft issued a release just before the actual announcement and demo at the Mix conference, which is just getting under way—here's what we can pick out so far. (More to come, after the demos.)
HTML5
HTML5 is basically the talk of the town right now, assuming your town is populated exclusively by web developers and Apple apologists. It's magic! It's going to save the internet! It's going to kill Flash! Etc. But really, it's more subtle than that: It's the next version of the entire language that underlies the web—HTML—and it supports a lot of interesting features, which will make websites behave more like apps. Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera have pretty much left Microsoft in the dust in terms for HTML5 support. Until now! Here's what Microsoft says IE9 will support:
• h.264 video: When people talk about HTML5 killing Flash, this is what they're talking about. Some video sites, like YouTube and Vimeo, have been experimenting with video playback that doesn't require a plugin to play. h.264 is the codec standard the big sites have chosen to go with, and now Internet Explorer will support it.
• Embedded Audio: Just as the video tag allows for video to be embedded directly into a page without a plugin, the audio tag allows audio files to be embedded straight into the page. IE9 supports MP3/AAC codecs.
• Scalable Vector Graphics: Scalable vector graphics allow for the creation of certain types of graphics that scale perfectly—because they're drawn as vectors, not plain images. It can also allow for rudimentary, Flash-style animations.
• CSS3: CSS is essentially what the web is formatted with, and Internet Explorer's various CSS compatibilities have been maddening since, well, forever. IE9 supports more standards-based CSS3—including Selectors, Namespaces, Color, Values, Backgrounds and Borders and fonts—and should support more before launch. They're finally trying, is the point.
The New JavaScript Engine
Modern web apps are loaded with JavaScript, to the point that new browsers are practically measured by how fast they can render it. (A faster JavaScript engine means sites like Gmail, Facebook and even Gizmodo don't just load faster, but run more quickly.) Here's how Microsoft says IE9 measures up right now:
Keep in mind that this is a WebKit-designed test, and that IE9 isn't ready for release yet—Microsoft says they'll still improve the rendering speed. And really, while IE9 might not outpace the fastest browsers out there, it's close. And hilariously faster than IE8.
2D Acceleration
Internet Explorer nine adds DirectX video acceleration for SVG graphics and even text rendering, which will make some SVG graphics and CSS3 rendering faster, but also applies to text rendering, which makes the entire browsing process a bit smoother.
HTML5 video rendering is much, much smoother than in Chrome (demonstrated onstage), simply because of Direct2D video rendering—Microsoft was able to demonstrate two 720p HD videos playing smoothly in the same browser windows, while Chrome choked on just one. Getting this acceleration doesn't require any extra code on the website's part.
Additionally, some Javascript rendering can also be offloaded to the GPU, which, again, help speed along rendering and responsiveness for complicated web apps.
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