Web dev

I hate this thing called IE

Jun 1, 2004 by Aleksandar Vacić 3 minute read

I really, really hate Internet Explorer. It’s such a bug-infested piece of crap (PoC) that it’s constantly ripping my nerves.

Idiotic, take 1: IIS 5, ASP, and IE, over SSL

  1. I read set of user messages from database. Those messages needs to be displayed as JS’s alerts, so I create a JS file and save it from ASP, using FileSystemObject.

  2. I have a set of constants kept in the database that I need in JS. So I create another .js file and save it

  3. In order to save HTTP requests, I combine those two files and save the result as final .js file

  4. When this file is loaded over HTTP all is fine.

  5. When loaded over SSL, The PoC never figures out that it has downloaded the file and keeps downloading nothing forever!

  6. Take the final .js file, load in anything (even Notepad), save it and behold the miracle - work even in IE.

  7. Do I need to tell that this does not happen with any other browser?

Idiotic, take 2: IIS 5 HTTP compression, IE

  1. HTTP compression is damn good thing. IIS5 has gzip flavor of it. IE supports it.

  2. Enable the compression and watch with horror how IE chokes with compressed files coming from IIS.

  3. Do I need to tell that this does not happen with any other browser?

Idiotic, take 3: any HTTP compression, IE

  1. If you have HTTP compression enabled, and you surf the site that use it with IE, from time to time you will have random Javascript errors popping-up. Sometimes several times a day, sometimes once a week. Random!

  2. Do forced refresh (Ctrl + F5) on that page and all works normally.

  3. Do I need to tell that this does not happen with any other browser?

Idiotic, take 4 - infinite

In no particular order…

  1. PNG alpha transparency broken.

  2. Broken float model.

  3. Missing text, aka Peek-a-boo.

  4. Pseudo-element extra-space needed.

  5. Duplicate character with adjacent floats.

  6. Broken margins on floats.

  7. Phantom box.

  8. 3px text jog.

  9. Missing first-letter.

  10. Creeping text.

  11. Doubling margin on floats.

  12. Float boxes running-away.

  13. Ignoring font-sizes inside of tables.

  14. Missing images if saved in Mac’s Photoshop 7.

  15. Not caching images loaded from CSS, thus introducing flicker (really annoying over SSL).

  16. Randomly loose images loaded from CSS, without realizing that.

  17. Not supporting the best thing that ever happened to web design: CSS2 selectors.

  18. Not supporting DOM2 Events.

  19. Not supporting position:fixed.

  20. Not being able to resize the only true screen measurement unit: pixels.

  21. Not supporting max-width and min-width.

  22. Not supporting :hover on any element. Count here all other pseudo-classes.

  23. Not being able to prototype existing HTML elements

  24. z-index phone book. I know. I hate every one of you responsible for this behavior. MS or other.

  25. Not giving “document ready” state when .swf file is missing and loaded with object tag (thus all your window.onload scripts never execute).

This is not the full list. Just things that troubles me almost every day.