HTML5 support for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 platform

29th March, 2010 by adina
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The second day of MIX10 for Microsoft has brought the launch of the new Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview, the next-generation browser’s first readily available version. This test version, although being considered as rough and using a bare frame, is the first IE to support HTML5, which brings it on the same level with modern browsers like Chrome, Safari and some newer versions of Firefox. It brings hardware acceleration and also DirectX to speed up drawing SVG images as well as text in the new standard for the web.

Besides the core rendering, this preview also brings a new JavaScript engine that is named “Chakra”. The title comes from the first multi-core aware JavaScript rendering engine that can use a single core to render the web scripts while the main page has the rest of the system devoted to it. Early tests rank the IE9 behind Safari 4 but ahead of the Firefox 3.7 pre-release.

The release of the new browser is still located somewhere far in the future but certain progress in compatibility has been shown in the few months since its appearance. The browser now gets 55 out of 100 on the ACID3 test for browsers while its first version scored only 32. Other browsers, such as Opera and Safari 4 are the only ones to achieve the perfection, while Chrome and Firefox have 99 and 94 points, respectively.

Going towards HTML5 and fast JavaScript is considered critical for the entire industry, not only for Microsoft. The company is known for the slow adoption of new web standards, which has forced sites to stay away from new technology, as the added features could not be seen by a majority of users, especially at work. HTML5 allows direct video and audio streaming without using a plug-in and has a lot of new additions, which also include improved support for offline web applications.


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