Microsoft revealed today during their 2009 Professional Developers Conference that the firm has begun work on Internet Explorer 9.
The preview, written by Internet Explorer GM Dean Hachamovitch, outlined a focus on improved font rendering, better standards support, and JavaScript performance.
JavaScript
Microsoft has committed itself to competing with Safari, Firefox and Chrome, the three browsers which have made a war out of improving JavaScript performance.
JavaScript performance (lower is better)
However, the firm was quick to temper its comments with a diagram illustrating that JavaScript often plays a very small role in the broader continuum of mechanisms that determine a browser’s impression of speed.
“It is worth noting that once the differences are this small, the other subsystems that contribute to performance become much more important, and perceiving the differences may be difficult on real-world sites,” Hachamovitch said. “That said, we remain committed to improving script performance.”
“We’re looking at the performance characteristics of all the browser sub-systems as real-world sites use them. Our goal is to deliver better performance across the board for real-world sites, not just benchmarks.”
Standards support
Rounded objects via CSS in IE9.
Microsoft remained reticent on committing to a certain or otherwise defined level of support for draft technologies like CSS3 and HTML5. The firm emphasized that tests like Acid3, a fan favorite amongst standards supporters, has become “widely used… even with some shortcomings.”
Instead, Microsoft highlighted what it felt were more meaningful indicators of standards support, such as rounded corners via CSS. The outfit also highlighted IE9’s improved support for CSS3 selectors with a 41/43 score in the css3.info selector test.
Even so, Microsoft played the Acid3 game by turning in a score of 32/100, and they promised that the score would “continue to go up” as they improved “support in IE for technologies that site developers use.”
“Ultimately, we want to work with the community and W3C and other members of the working groups to define true validation test suites, like the one that we’re all working on together for CSS 2.1, for the standards that matter to developers,” Hachamovitch said.
Font rendering
Highlighting the evolving presence of the GPU within all aspects of daily computing, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 9 will switch all graphics and text rendering to the DirectX API.
“Graphics hardware acceleration means that rich, graphically intensive sites can render faster while using less CPU (This interview includes screen captures of a few examples),” Microsoft writes. “Now, web developers can take advantage of the hardware ecosystem’s advances in graphics while they continue to author sites with the same interoperable standards patterns they’re used to.”
The firm demonstrated the benefits of the migration by offering an A/B comparison of a 96pt Gabriola string with and without hardware acceleration; viewing the images at their full resolutions really highlights the differences.
Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 without acceleration
Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 with acceleration
Microsoft stressed that Internet Explorer 9 was very early in its development period; the early preview was merely designed to communicate Microsoft’s goals and intentions for the next version of Internet Explorer. There is no estimated release date for the new version.
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