So, IE7 beta is available. Sort of, cause it is not for everyone. Faruk shares his impressions and points out to those of others, Dave Shea is not impressed that much , and Molly shares some wisdom.
I, however, seriously doubt that this beta will improve much on the way to production. Some sad “I told you so!” feeling, but it was PPK who told us two years ago:
Why is Microsoft unwilling to fix the CSS bugs that everyone’s been asking it to fix for ages? I think it’s not unwilling but unable to do so. Explorer’s code engine cannot be updated any more.
Faruk also comments:
IE7 builds upon existing (and outdated) technology. A complete rewrite of the engine would pose the gigantic risk of breaking 90% of the existing web as we know it. That’s not worth improving Standards-support to anyone, I would say.
If this is true, then either the rendering engine of IE7 will not be touched that much and will go on carrying around same old bugs (in that case it would be better not to have IE7 at all, and just let that old browser dIE), or engine will be modified, and
new bugs will be inevitably introduced.
And this is the saddest thing: I catch myself thinking of IE7 not as a new browser, but as a collection of bugs and deficiencies with which I will have to deal as a web developer.
That makes me a pessimist, I guess…
[2005-07-30] Update: I can be wrong… I wish I am.