Microsoft hacks IE 5.5 for Mac

From...

July 6, 2000
Web posted at: 8:27 a.m. EDT (1227 GMT)

by David Read

(IDG) -- When Microsoft representatives tossed T-shirts to the crowd at the recent MacHack 2000 conference, some attendees threw them back. But no one appeared to return the MacHack CD, which includes the first beta version of Internet Explorer 5.5.

New features in the beta--which Microsoft described as a "technology preview" that's "not reflective of the final product"--include extensible toolbars to which you can drag graphics from a Web page. The graphics--GIF, JPEG and PNG files--become buttons that can link to the image's URL or execute a JavaScript. Animated GIFs dragged to the bar continue to animate. By modifying the XML code that configures the toolbar, you can add your own URLs or define four states for each button: enabled, disabled, rollover and depressed.

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Another new feature gives you more flexibility when opening links in new windows. IE 5.0 lets you open a new window in front of the current one by command-clicking on a link. IE 5.5 adds the ability to open a new window that appears behind the current one by command-shift-clicking on the link.

A new Type-select navigation feature lets you use the keyboard to move among links on a Web page. As you begin typing, the browser places a focus ring around the text or graphic link that most closely matches your keystrokes. When you press Return, the browser goes to the selected link.

The beta also includes a revamped version of the Tasman rendering engine, which was introduced in IE 5. Microsoft said the new version offers "significant improvements" in performance, stability and standards-compliance when rendering CSS 1, CSS2, HTML 4, JavaScript and XML pages.

Unlike most of the hacks presented at the conference, IE 5.5 beta 1 does not include source code.

The company said that the beta preview is not Carbon compliant. Microsoft has developed a Carbonized version of IE 5.0 that was included on the Mac OS X Developer Preview 4 CD distributed to attendees at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in May.

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Official MacHack site
The official MacHack CD at the Mindvision store
Apple's IE 5 for Mac product page
Microsoft's Mac product page

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