Microsoft IE9 Platform Preview: What to Expect

more images

Microsoft unleashed Platform Preview for the latest version of its browser Internet Explorer 9. As is expected, IE9’s debut will not to create ripples in the browser market overnight, but Web developers must be anxious to test drive the Platform Preview. IE9 is set out to offer a completely new experience for visual computing. Delving in to the browser reveals a new JavaScript engine, hardware accelerated graphics and text features, a rendering engine, and the developer tools. IE9 will be one of its kind to offer the performance benefits for shifting from CPU to GPU and only browser to offer GPU-Powered HTML5. Packed with next-gen features we need to consider whether the IE9 browser can compete with its rivals Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera Software’s Opera, and Apple’s Safari.

Speed

Microsoft claims the IE9 browser will be faster than Firefox 3.6.

Interface

The Platform Preview far less featured than a fully-functional browser. The browser shows no tabs, no address bar. It includes no back button.  It has everything that Web developers need to see. Given the growing popularity of Google Chrome, it can be anticipated that IE9 will have a streamlined browser with a user-friendly look and feel.

Support for several Standards

IE9 will offer better support for several standards including HTML5, DOM, and CSS3. Microsoft will be laying special emphasis on HTML5 for IE9. Given that HTML is in the process of development and might not be implemented soon, IE9 will have to be cautious while implementing the features. As the standards change, there will be changes with parts of HTML5 even after IE9 is released. To counter this Microsoft will continue with its approach in IE8 - supporting the current Web features and introducing the new features along the way.

Microsoft did show a HTML5 feature using the YouTube’s implementation of the HTML5 video element, but it required a bit of fiddling.
IE9 will be the first of its kind to offer GPU-Powered HTML5. Systems with right blend of CPU/GPU horsepower will be able to make the most of IE9.

Focus on Acid3 test

Microsoft will be focusing on web standards, IE9’s Acid3 test. It measures how well the web browser follows certain web standards. It achieves a 55/100 as compared to Firefox 3.7 that scores a 97/100. However, Microsoft shows no intentions of scoring 100/100. The IE9 team will be more focused on what the developers actually wanna support.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

A number of sites looking for IE to render their content as Vector Markup Language(VML). IE9 will be able to render it to SVG. Essentially, Scalable Vector Graphics is a XML-based file format for describing static and dynamic 2D vector graphics. The standard has been under development by W3C since 1999. Recently Microsoft joined the SVG working group and assured that it will collaborate with the future versions of the standard. The company is getting more specific with supporting IE9.

It’s functionality will include Document Structure, Basic Shapes, Paths, Texts, Painting Filling Color, Scripting Styling, Gradients and Patterns, Clipping and Masking, Markers and Symbols.

Another issue that Microsoft clarified was that instead of the SVG fonts, they will rely on the TrueType fonts. According to Redmond company, SVG Fonts might be sophisticated in terms of API, but they are not important in terms of uses on the Web.

The Developer Tool for IE9 will allow users to edit SVG just like editing HTML. It will be easy for developers to debug the problems with SVG.

Compatible Systems

To make IE9 fully equipped for new web era Microsoft had to compromise on a few things. Most importantly, IE9 will not be supporting Windows XP. Only the WIndows 7 and Vista users are eligible for IE9.

To install in the IE9 Preview in Vista you need to install IE8(in case it is not already installed) and use the Platform update for Windows Vista. The IE9 Platform Preview is available in  32-bit x86 version, but it will also run on 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Vista PC.

We are still not clear about the features IE9 beta version will carry. However, Microsoft will be aiming to make the browser faster, and allow the developers to use the same markup across IE 9 and other non-Microsoft browsers. Moreover, the browser needs to maintain compatibility with Web sites at the same level as IE 8.

We can wait until the beta version of IE9 is finally released. Until then you can download the Platform Preview for a trial.