Later this year Microsoft will release a public version of their next browser. Compared to previous versions Internet Explorer 8 will by default be set to follow web standards rather than “MS standards”. This will create the need for yet another IE fix concerning styling and layout.

The following support article from Microsoft explains how you can add a little code to the file header to keep the old behavior (emulate IE7). You can off course also assume that IE8 will behave like Opera, Safari and Firefox and just keep the rules for older IE versions (I think I prefer the latter if it turns out okay).

You can download and test IE8 Beta here.

Fingers crossed

First let me emphasise that I’m not a big fan of making up different styling rules for the various browsers. But in some (most) cases it’s an absolute necessity.

Before I continue I’d like to mention Dean Edwards IE7 JavaScript library which makes Microsoft Internet Explorer behave like a standards-compliant browser. It fixes many HTML and CSS issues and makes transparent PNG work correctly under IE5 and IE6. That saves you the hassle of making tons of IE specific style sheets and embedding them using these conditional comments (bottom of page).

So with IE out of the way there’s still a few Opera and Safari “bugs” that may need attention. Instead of relying on JavaScript, which will be ignored by some browsers or users that have disabled Java, you may try this PHP approach that I successfully implemented on one of my sites today.

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words.

To participate you need to remove all CSS from your website, stripping it entirely of its design. However, I only noticed this today (too late for once) so I’ll be in for next year, for sure!

To read more about this initiative, and have a look at how a lot of your fellow bloggers look in the “nude, then you should visit naked.dustindiaz.com

markItUp! is a JavaScript plugin built on the jQuery library. It allows you to turn any textarea into a markup editor. Html, Textile, Wiki Syntax, Markdown, BBcode or even your own Markup system can be easily implemented.

markItUp! is not meant to be a “Full-Features-Out-of-the-Box”-editor. Instead it is a very lightweight, customizable and flexible engine made to meet the developer’s needs in their CMSes, blogs, forums or websites.

Note! markItUp! is not a WYSIWYG editor, and it never will be.

Visit Jay Salvat for more information, examples and to download the source.

The Spry framework for Ajax is a JavaScript library that provides easy-to-use yet powerful Ajax functionality that allows designers to build pages that provide a richer experience for their users. It is designed to take the complexity out of Ajax and allow designers to easily create Web 2.0 pages.

The Spry framework is a way to incorporate XML, JSON or HTML data into pages using HTML, CSS, and a minimal amount of JavaScript, without the need for refreshing the entire page. Spry also provides easy to build and style widgets, providing advanced page elements for end users.

The Spry framework is HTML-centric, and easy to implement for users with basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The framework was designed such that the markup is simple and the JavaScript is minimal. It can be used by anyone who is authoring for the web in their tool of choice.

To see what is possible using Spry, check out the Spry home page, that show the Spry framework in action.

The Spry prerelease download was updated today to support the shipping version of Adobe AIR. Visit Adobe Labs to  download the new version.