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February Chat with the Internet Explorer team on Thursday

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Join members of the Internet Explorer team for an Expert Zone chat this Thursday, February 19th at 10.00 PST/18.00 UTC. These chats are a great opportunity to have your questions answered by members of the IE product team. Thank you to all who have attended our previous chats! 

If you can’t join us live, the transcript for all chats are available here.  Other upcoming Expert Zone chat dates can be found here. 

Sharon Cohen
Program Manager

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2009
    Sharon - Thanks for pointing out the chat time & date. It'd be great to get the transcript from January's chat put into the archive :-). Thanks! Cheers,
  • Bill

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2009
    > What is the difference between an Alpha, a > Beta, and a Release Candidate I'm not entirely certain that this holds for IE, but it's an interesting read anyway: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.03.windowsconfidential.aspx

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2009
    Hey IE team: How come the transcript from January hasn't been posted yet? I've been looking forward to see it.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    I wonder, will Internet Explorer team fix problem with View Source in version 8 or do I wait till version 9? View Source in IE6 only worked if page did not have HTML errors. Well, as a web developer I do not need to see source unless I have errors on a page. There were fixes in the internet (like add something to registry, do something with notepad, etc), but they did not really help. So I was forced to use Opera or Firefox to fix my web pages. I was eager to get IE7. Unfortunately, IE7 had the same problems. I know, I need to download and try IE8, but i'm AFRAID to - I realy afraid to loose trust in Microsoft IE team abilities. Did I try to notify Microsoft? Yes, multile times. Sometimes Microsoft web site told me that bug reporting on Internet Explorer is temporaly suspended, sometimes - that I have to be a part of Internet Explorer testing team to report bugs (may be I must be a part of that team just to use it?). So I posted similar message in IE forums and blogs like this one (mostly, 2-3 years ago) - nobody cares. I did not do much of web programming for a few years, but Yesterday I did, and I've got the same View Source problem again in my IE7 with all the patches.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    Konstantin: I've NEVER see the problem you're talking about (in IE6 or IE7 or IE8).  How about you post an example page that demonstrates the problem?  

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @DT As I suspected, Watson. It's a game of expectations. thanks for the link

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    I have one question for you guys: Would you consider the possibility to release at least one more major bug-fixing build (RC2?) before the final release because I get the impression that Trident is still very buggy in RC1? I believe it's much more important to release a (as much as possible) bug-free final build and finally get the credits you really deserve from the development community rather than releasing another major IE version that features plenty of annoying bugs and seed more IE frustration.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    You think Microsoft is going to change the shipdate for a product with hundreds of millions of users simply based on the votes of a few webdevs?  Not likely. If they did an RC2, you'd be back here in a few weeks begging for an RC3. Test on RC1 now, and file every bug you find!

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @Bob - we did test on RC1 and we found it very buggy.  Supposedly things are fixed, but we have no idea.  We filed tons of bugs, and they're all marked "Active", with no indication if they are fixed internally or even read or addressed by Microsoft. As far as we're concerned, IE8 RC1 is not ready, and since so many of the bugs in IE8 RC1 make full testing very difficult (oh so many alignment issues) we respectfully ask that a real "Release Candidate" be sent out so that we can Test it, and modify our code if required to handle the "fixes" in IE8. If IE8 goes RTM without another realistic RC I suspect most developers will simply have to force an IE7 rendering mode - and the Web will no longer advance because IE can't keep up.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @bob - "You think Microsoft is going to change the shipdate for a product..." - What are you on? MSFT has not stated a shipdate yet.  They indicated that in "Early Q1" an RC would be released (and it was), and that "after that" the final version would be released. They never said there would only be 1 RC, or that the RTM would be out within 2 weeks of RC1. If IE8 RC1 isn't up to par (it isn't), then RC2 is the next logical move. (2,3,4,5 RC's is perfectly fine!)  Only after an RC is deemed to be "ready to ship", should the thoughts of RTM even come to mind. This is the way REAL software works. I don't care if IE8 doesn't make it out until November, I want a solid release - not the buggy thing we have now.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    I forgot to metion one more thing in my previous post, but it's worth to mention non the less... jonas pretty much said it: RC2 doesn't have to come soon (I too don't care if IE8 comes out at Q4 or heck, even later). Take your time. Just say that there will be RC2 at SOME point, and when it does come out, make sure it fixes all (or at least most) reported regressions and new rendering/scripting/whatever engine bugs at Connect. Developers will make extensive testing and verifications either way.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @sonicdoommario Unfortunately we had technical difficulties at the end of the January Chat which caused the transcript to be lost.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @Allison - If the January IE Chat was truly "lost", let me know - I have a copy of it (un-moderated of course) ;-)

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @steve_web - Great! Please send the copy of the transcript to ieso@microsoft.com.  Thanks Steve!

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    Dan and boen_robot,   >>Konstantin: I've NEVER see the problem you're talking about (in IE6 or IE7 or IE8).  How about you post an example page that demonstrates the problem?   Please take a look. I would HIGLY appreciate if Microsoft IE Explorer team will take a look too. I can see it in IE7 on XP and Vista (just tested on my PC and laptop) Start IE7 Go to http://espros.overtrace.com/7.php right click on CLICK HERE, open in the new window in that window (8.php) right click on CLICK HERE and open in the new window. Now you have 3 pages on your screen 7.php, 8.php, 7.php In the first window (the one you opened first) right click and choose "View Source" On my PCs nothing happen (notepad does not start, and I cannot view source). There are much more similar problems I have, but they are not stable (meaning, sometoimes they let me view source, sometimes not.) Most of them happen when there are errors in HTML code. This one is stable. Enjoy!

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @Konstantin: I'm not able to reproduce the View Source problem you're describing.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    Weird. I tried on my daugher's PC - it's Win2000 & IE6 - same problem. I open these 3 windows, in 2nd and 3rd one I can see source, in the first one I cannot. So far I have tried 3 PCs - XP, Vista and 2000 - with the same result. I'll try at work tomorrow - I have 2 PCs and laptop, all with WinXP. Let me repeat, I CAN SEE PROBLEM ON ALL 3 computers I have!

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    @Konstantin: Could you link the website or tell us what file you are navigating to that causes this problem? I suspect (like Olivier suggested) that you have set a different editor from the default, which itself has difficulty with malformed content. The default source viewer in IE8 is a new custom viewer, but you can set it to notepad or something else using the Developer Tools.  The default source viewer in IE7 and before was notepad, and could also be customized. To change Source Viewers in IE8:

  1.  Hit F12
  2.  In the Developer Tools menu: File->Customize Internet Explorer View Source->[Default, or Notepad, or Other...]

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    Konstantin: there are no general problems with viewing source in IE6, 7 or 8. And I don't have problems with your example. Are you sure that you haven't simply run out of GDI ressources? If the problem happens persistently on more than one PC then the most obvious reason is some common software you have installed on all of them. I do know of one page of my own that won't open the view source editor. I didn't test it with IE8 yet. Thanks for reminding, I will do now. But that's really the only page I ever encountered that created this problem.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    @Konstantin : I've just tried with IE7 installed on a Windows XP SP3 and I can view the source without any problem.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    @Konstantin : I've now tried on IE8 RC1 (win XP SP3), and also IE8 on Windows 7 (build 7000) and I still can't reproduce your problem.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    I've tried two more computers. I CAN view source with laptop - no problem (IE 7 on XP) but cannot see it from desktop (IE 6, XP) So, my statistics so far: WinXP IE7 - PROBLEM Vista IE7 - PROBLEM 2000 IE6 - PROBLEM WinXP IE7 - Ok WinXP IE6 - PROBLEM again - problem happen only for the first window, in the second and the third, view source works fine. No, I do not change viewer - I use notepad. And it works for all windows except for this one. I mean, it is not configuration problem, it is BUG IN IE. I'm very surprized only few people are aware of the problem with View Source. When I made living doing web programming, I saw some kind of View Source problem at least once a day (well, I did library programming and saw lots of HTML syntax errors and debug info in random places) I will try to find some other stable example of the problem tonight.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    just an update for @sonicdoommario, the raw chat transcript was found and delivered to Allison - so hopefully it will be available to you/everyone soon.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    Let me clarify the end of my last message - I mean, I saw the View Source problem very often when I was working on server-side libraries, where HTML code and client-side JavaScript was often messed up and some debuggind or error messages was printed in the random places of HTML document, or there was an error in the middle of a document, and error message and no closing tags.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    Oliver, That could be the answer! All PCs where I can see the problem have Russian locale installed. I do not have it installed on one laptop at work, and I do not see the problem there! Now I'm getting a clue why I see it all over the place, but nobody else can see it! Thank you very much! I hope, Internet Explorer team read this blog, install Russian locale on their test PC, and open pages I mentioned above. I hope, they will be able to reproduce the problem and fix it.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2009
    @Konstantin: Thanks for the additional info!  Does your login username contain any non-ASCII characters?

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2009
    There is one annoying bug that is still present in RC1: When you drop down the favorites from the menu bar and you click "Sort by name" on any folder in your favorites, the favorites menu disappears and you have pull it down again to continue. In IE7, the sorting was done but you were not thrown out the favorites. I'd love to see this fixed in the final version. Regards, Matthias

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2009
    I think InPrivate browsing is great, but I'd love to be able to change the internet security settings for InPrivate sessions without affecting my normal browsing experience. For example I'd like to disable addons, gif animations, scripts and other active content for InPrivate browsing, is this possible?

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2009
    Is there some technical issue with the chat today? We're all logged in, but there is no action yet (10min in)

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2009
    From Chris Wilson's Twitter... "IE team expect zone chat cancelled for today - chat tool broken. :( Will reschedule."