| Internet Explorer 6 | |
|---|---|
| HOME PAGE: | http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp |
| DOWNLOAD: | http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.asp |
| LICENSE: | Proprietary (distributed free) |
| FILE SIZE: | Typical - 25MB (Can vary anywhere between 11MB - 75MB according to user preferences) |
| SYS REQ: | Any Pentium processor Windows 98, 98SE, Me, NT, 2000, XP - 16MB RAM (Windows 98, 98SE) - 32MB RAM (all later versions of Windows) Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution monitor |
| LIMITATIONS: | Will overwrite any previously installed version of Internet Explorer |
Overview
Having muscled its way past Netscape in the last half of the nineties, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) is now the King Kong of web browsers and is, without a doubt, the most widely used. And despite your personal preferences in a web browser or any honourable intentions to boycott the corporate powers-that-be of computer software, if you are a serious web author then I'm sorry to say that Internet Explorer is a MUST-HAVE. With over 90% of web surfers in its back pocket, if Internet Explorer fails to display your web page the way you wanted it to then the bottom line is you better sit up and pay attention because otherwise you just aren't in the game.
What's more, if your web page does look all cockeyed in this browser then chances are your web authoring skills need some polishing. It has been my experience (from the days when I didn't bother to validate my code) that Internet Explorer will gloss over many minor errors in HTML source code and display web pages just as I intended. Only later on would I discover these errors after attempting to run my source code through a more standards compliant browser and seeing my beautiful web page turn into a mangled, neo-cubist train wreck.
What this boils down to is that if you're a lazy but fairly competent HTML hand-coder and you don't care how your web pages look in other browsers then you and IE will get along just fine. If, on the other hand, you do care how your web pages look in other browsers then don't count on IE to always speak up when you've made a minor mistake because quite often it won't. Its basic approach is something like, "That's alright. No sweat. I know what you meant to do and here ya go. No problem."
On the flip side, if you know that you are writing good source code (you can always check with the W3C validation service to find out) and your web page still doesn't look right in IE, the thought may cross your mind that "Internet Explorer isn't working properly". But don't immediately brush this off as paranoid delusion as the fact of the matter is Internet Explorer may indeed not be working properly. This is because since it falls short of complying with certain web standards then it doesn't always behave as it should (e.g. the erroneous way it includes padding and borders when calculating the width of block elements).
Despite all this, my preferred method is still to cater to Internet Explorer when constructing my web pages and then tweak the source code to accomodate other browsers. Even though IE is, in my humble opinion, akin to a junkyard dog which will consume just about any half-baked web page you throw at it, I insist on being inured with the look that a vast majority of web surfers will be confronted with when they hit my websites. You may prefer, however, to do things the other way around, that is, cater to more standards compliant browsers and then afterwards tweak the source code to accomodate IE.
Limitations
Probably the most annoying drawback about Internet Explorer from a web author's point of view is that whenever you install a new version of Internet Explorer, it will refuse to install as a 'standalone' version but rather will overwrite your older version. This will only permit you to have one version of IE installed on your computer at any one time thus rendering it difficult to see how your web pages look in previous versions. For whatever reasons
Uhmm... er... heh heh...
Pardon me. I must have slipped off into dreamland there for a moment...
Back to reality-
There are some unofficial hacks and workarounds kicking about that will permit you to view your web pages in previous versions of IE. In my humble opinion, the most reliable is to download these:
Previous stand-alone versions of Internet Explorer
Web Author Tips
- You can add an "Edit with [your_favourite_HTML_editor]" button in the File drop down menu of Internet Explorer by clicking on:
Tools » Internet Options » Programs
Then in the HTML Editor box, use the drop-down menu to select your favourite installed HTML editor. Click OK to apply the setting. - You can click on View » Source to open up the source code of the current web page in NotePad.
- You can download and install the Google Toolbar into Internet Explorer which will, among other things, show you the Page Rank of your web pages.
PLEASE NOTE:
Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is the latest version of this browser. As a webmaster, you should really have both IE6 and IE7 installed and regularly use them to test your web pages in as it will probably take quite a while for all users to switch over to IE7.
| Last updated: Tuesday January 06, 2009 |
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