Internet Explorer Platform Preview 4. Overview

    Today, the IE9 development team announced the release of a new version of IE9 Platform Preview.



    You can download here ie.microsoft.com/testdrive (version number 9.0.7916.6000).

    Let me remind you that Platform Preview is a special version intended for developers. It contains only a rendering engine and a javascript engine (+ developer tools) and does not contain a traditional UI browser.

    Following the release of IE9 PP4, the next in line is the beta version.

    What's new in IE9 PP4?


    In short, an increase in speed, improved support for standards, bug fixes and new tests and examples.

    Javascript

    Essentially, there were no significant changes in the JavaScript engine itself (Chakra) in the new version, nevertheless, one fundamental shift still takes place.

    In the new version, the JS engine is integrated with the browser, which allows you to remove the intermediate transfer of information and the coordination of two DOMs in one application.



    In fact, IE9 was the first browser in which the browser and script engine share a common ECMAScript5-based DOM. In other words, now all DOM objects are full ES5 objects. DOM binding is based on the W3C WebIDL standard .

    Remember to check your browser for DOM and ES5 support .


    And, of course, all this could not but affect the performance:


    Standards Tests

    New Standards Tests

    The collection of test cases in IE Testing Center has been supplemented with 519 new tests, the total number has grown to 2138.

    Let me remind you that all tests are open and are being developed jointly with the W3C working groups. Feedback on W3C standards tests can be sent to the appropriate workgroups, and on ES5 support in IE9 - on Microsoft Connect .

    ACID3

    With all the ambiguity of ACID3 as a set of tests to verify standards support, the new result cannot but rejoice;)


    Failed tests:
    • Test 75 failed: Object doesn't support this property or method
    • Test 76 failed: expected '0' but got '100' - Incorrect animVal value after svg animation.
    • Test 77 failed: Not implemented
    • Test 78 failed: expected '90' but got '1.9237771034240722' - getRotationOfChar (0) failed.
    • Test 79 failed: Not implemented
    The missing points relate to support for SVG Fonts and SMIL Animations. Detailed comments on this can be found on the IE team blog . In short, we are talking about the fact that now in the working groups they note weak support for both areas, there are some contradictions that are actively discussed in the context of integration with Web Open Font Format (WOFF) and CSS3.

    New Demos

    Along with the new version of IE9PP4 , new demo examples appeared on the project site , showing how to work with HTML5, DOM and E5, as well as support for SVG and Canvas.


    Try playing Hamster Dance Revolution , composing a musical composition in IE Beatz,


    and don't forget to check your browser for psychedelicity ;)

    Additional Information


    On Channel 9, 4 demo videos for IE9 PP4 are available, revealing specific technical details:
    IE9PP4 Release Notes can be viewed here ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/info/ReleaseNotes

    Where to write about errors?


    If you find an error in IE9, be sure to write about it on connect.microsoft.com/ie - this will greatly facilitate the life of web developers in the future;)

    ps The bug eval ('- 1') has been fixed. It’s not for nothing that we all reported the habra about it;)

    pps Get ready for beta;)

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