Comments on: The Browser Acid Test

By: StuV

StuV — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:47:38 +0000

I’m positive Outlook Find was an inside joke that somehow made it into the shipping code.Windows Desktop Search FTW.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:57:14 +0000

It is my belief that Microsoft does not want us to find things. Search and find functions seem to generally be really sucky in most MS applications. Especially Outlook.

By: StuV

StuV — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:44:12 +0000

My bad; I should have said finalized standards.I also did a bad job of making my actual point: as much as I personally like it, IE sucks in so many other ways (like, oh, having Find functionality on a par with farking Notepad for crying out loud) that griping over noncompliance with section 54238 b (ii) C of draft 914 of CSS 3.1.03856 seems like silly nitpicking.To me, at least.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:16:06 +0000

So, the Beta values are probably actually more valuable then, really.

By: Left_Wing_Fox

Left_Wing_Fox — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:14:27 +0000

Bear in mind, the Acid2 and Acid3 tests were specifically designed to break on all current browsers. Stu’s incorrect that they don’t test for approved standards; they do. But they do test some of the most obscure or unusual parts of the standard that are rarely implemented correctly. The goal is not to castigate specific browsers for being incompatable, but to provide a goal that developers can work towards to ensure full compliance with existing standards.And yes, I realize that Apple’s 90% is a nightly beta. The wikipedia page has a link to an archive of Dave Hyatt’s “Surfin’ Safari” blog, back when he was fixing Webkit to hit the Acid2 test. It took about 6 weeks for the fixes he made to make it into a public release of WebKit, and 6 months before it was part of the commercially shipping product.It’s likely that hitting the Acid Test likely breaks a lot of shortcuts used to be “mostly” compliant in the current release, and those new bugs need to be then fixed before they can ship the product.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:56:07 +0000

Stu,I don’t think I quite get what you are saying. Is there a minimal amount of time a test must exist before it is valid? The Beat/Release differential (see the site linked to above) argues that such a time span may be a matter of days or weeks.

By: StuV

StuV — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:22:26 +0000

The Acid Test is a webs standards test to which browsers can be subjected to see which is best.Thanks for the laugh. That was a good one.Anyway, you realize the Acid3 test has been out for, oh, a week, right? That it tests things that aren't in an approved standard, right?If you're going to troll Microsoft, at least do it right.

By: Lassi Hippelinen

Lassi Hippelinen — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:55:51 +0000

If Firefox+Windows rates at 52% and IE+Windows at 14%, it isn’t an OS problem, it’s a browser problem. Microsoft has chosen to be non-compliant. They want their own WWW. That’s why even their web server tools differ from standards.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:28:14 +0000

That 90% rating (and all the other high ratings) are all for the Beta’s. The release versions are all way slower. I suppose there is a reason for that.

By: Left_Wing_Fox

Left_Wing_Fox — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:51:32 +0000

Safari is at 90% right now. Apple made the Acid2 test a priority when they first released Safari, and were the first ones to hit it. KHTML benefits from Apple’s developments thanks to the shared heritage, but KHTML and Webkit are pretty different beasts by now, so sharing code apparently isn’t as easy anymore.