IE 8 strict mode doesn’t allow for CSS opacity?
Date : 2008 04 02 Category : Tech & Development
AjaxianHoward Rauscher tipped us off to this IE 8 ticket that talks about how opacity and IE 8 strict mode do not jive:
Description
IE8 Strict Mode correctly omits the filter: alpha(opacity=xx) in CSS
which allows the user to specify the opacity in pre-IE8 browsers but
does not implement the CSS3 opacity setting. While I understand that
opacity is part of the CSS3 spec which is not finalized, this leaves
developers with an odd regression in functionality where it is no
longer possible to change opacity on css elements (where as it was
with IE 5.5, IE 6.0, IE 7.0, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, among
others).
Comments
So the fact that this has been labeled as by design suggests that IE8
will be the only browser produced in the last 10 or so years that will
not support opacity in its strictest mode. Thats rediculous. I
understand the wish to be standards compliant but how hard is it to
implement reading the css3 opacity tag (even if it still makes use of
the filter, at least it will exist as a future standards equivelant
tag).
At some point standards has to give way to usability. Mozilla, Opera,
Apple all realize that a few tags that maybe are not official CSS 2
spec still need to be available. If major functionality is missing
from the standards compliant version of IE8, who will use it, even if
it is standards compliant.
You'll have a whole host of websites that are standards compliant but
need a few features unavailable in standards compliant mode. So these
websites will be setup to use IE7 mode. And then when IE9 comes out
you'll have to deal with compatibility issues all over again.
Posted by Ames on 3/17/2008 at 3:59 PM
A pretty crazy regression no?