Don’t Reinvent IE

Please don’t reinvent IE

The writer’s subject seems to suggest he likes IE as it is, however the content of his article seems to suggest otherwise:

I read all kinds of thoughts how and why IE should evolve but it really shouldn’t. It should be put to rest, and the focus should be moved to an application which is already at our desktop: the CLR itself. It’s a waste of energy when you are trying to re-invent the wheel that is already available: winforms. The majority of web-applications use cumbersome HTML-forms to try to build a workable GUI, while a winforms developer can do that with ease using the winforms glyphs and controls.

Continue reading for more cool insights on what’s coming up with IE7, Longhorn, and the web on Windows systems.

I think what Frans is trying to say is that we need something totally different to provide similar content to as the WWW does now. He feels X/HTML/SLT/ML is antiquated for what a lot of people are trying to do with the web and we should move to a model that’s more like designing a Visual C++ app.

However, I think that this would be a bad idea a single reason:

The only reason the web is as popular as it is today is because HTML is one of the easiest markup languages to learn. Its been almost 10 years now and you’ve got a very large installed base of developers, most of them with very little technical knowledge beyond making simple HTML pages.

I realise you meant that ‘developers’ should move towards a platform like this to develop web apps, however, users will have to drive these apps. Will users want to use two tools to recieve similar content? Most users can’t be bothered to install two web browsers let alone an app to pull down these new services.

However, if you’re implying that the ability to view and use these services be built into the operating system, I think you might be onto something.

In any case it’s a lot of cool stuff to think about ;)

On a similar note, DonXML says

We are in a desperate need for true XML browsers, and need to get away from the old school HTML design of extending browsers with plugins that do not participate as an equal partner with the rest of the browser. That means extending browsers with namespace engines that can render the new namespaces, but can also work with the other namespaces within the document. Some things leaked about Longhorn seem to be along those lines, but I don’t think we will know for sure until the PDC.

Scoble gives an interesting inside perspective on the whole situation. He says:

All of you who are asking “is IE dead?” are asking the wrong question.

The right question is: “is the Web dead in Longhorn?”

In the latest builds of Longhorn, Google still works just fine. Does that answer that question?

A commenter with no credentials says:

Yes. IE is dead. There will be no IE7.

Without saying too much, the trend before the Netscape trial was for the browser to move into the background. That will continue to happen. There will be no real distinction between online and offline anymore, between browser and application. It’s cool and scary and intriguing, but it is also pretty much inevitable.

Interrrrresting.