Microsoft has announced the "Preview Release" of Internet Explorer 9 which seems to be a milestone for the IE family considering it gets closer to the standards.
The IE9 has a new JavaScript engine which performs much better than IE8 & some other browsers.
Another good news is, it supports HTML5, CSS3 & SVG almost completely.
The website includes speed, HTML5 & graphics demos besides the comparisons of the features with other browsers.
This new release requires Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 which hopefully changes with the stable release (otherwise, IE may continue to be a barrier on new standards as XP will probably live long).
Requirements: Windows 7 (x86 or x64) or Windows Vista SP2 (x86 or x64)
Less Framework is a lightweight CSS framework for building flexible multi-column website layouts.
It contains an eight-column grid optimized for a line-height of 24px & a set of typography presets based on the golden ratio which is parallel to the grid’s vertical rhythm.
Web pages created with the framework collapse smartly into a single column in modern browsers & on small screens.
Less Framework uses the HTML5 enabling script by Remy Sharp & optionally there is a JavaScript function provided (requires jQuery) included which mimics the function of min-device-width for browsers that do not support it.
Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: Chrome, Safari 3.0+, Firefox 3.0+ and Internet Explorer 7+.
Video For Everybody is a smartly created HTML code for embedding videos into websites using the HTML5 <video> element.
If HTML5 is not supported, it falls back to QuickTime & Flash as the last option automatically (actually, as the last option, it can display an image if the Flash is not supported).
It does not use any JavaScript or browser-sniffing & works in RSS readers, iPhone / iPad besides all the major browsers.
Video For Everybody requires the video to be encoded in 2 different formats:
- MP4 (Safari, Flash, iPhone / iPad)
- OGG (Firefox 3.5+, Chrome, Opera 10.5+)
There is also a test page provided to see the compatibility it offers across browsers.
Compatibility: All Major Browsers (Linux systems without Firefox 3.5, Flash or MPEG-4 codecs can have problems)
52framework is a CSS framework which aims to provide an easy way to build websites using HTML5 & CSS3 while still supporting all modern browsers (including ie6).
It uses HTML5 tags like header, nav, section, article, footer or new input field types like url, email, etc. The framework also has a HTML5 compatible reset stylesheet.
52framework uses the new ::selection selector that enables you to customize the properties of selected text.
It can apply rounded corners for any block level element, text-shadow for text elements & more.
The framework also includes styles for creating grids: 16 column, 52 pixel based with 8 pixel gutter.
52framework is a user-contributed resource & you can easily send suggestions to improve it further.
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Plupload is a very flexible, feature-rich & open source file uploader that enables you to upload files using:
- HTML5 Gears
- Silverlight
- Flash
- BrowserPlus
- normal forms
It can be used via the JavaScript API or the ready-to-go jQuery plugin.
Plupload has great features like image resizing, displaying upload progress, drag'n drop, multiple file uploads, unique filename generation, max-file-size limit & more.
As expected, it has a server-side file to handle the uploads (PHP file is included with the download).
It is possible to define multiple runtimes (Flash, HTML5 Gears, etc) in the code. The uploader will check their availability in the configured order & select the most appropriate method.
The library is very well-documented & comes with various examples.
Requirements: PHP
Compatibility: All Major Browsers (features may differ according to the runtime used)
JAI is an open source JavaScript audio interface for the HTML5 <audio> tag that can play a list of audio files.
It doesn't use any image, all the elements are rendered in runtime with the <canvas> element & the click-able play-list is only a list of links that are styled with CSS.
It can only work in modern browsers that has HTML5 support & use the Ogg Vorbis audio codec for the <audio> tag.
JAI, rather than being a player to be used in today's websites, is more a proof of concept that shows how HTML5 will be changing the web.
Compatibility: HTML5 Enabled Browsers
Similar to the IE6 situation, when using HTML5/CSS3 in our websites, it is a good idea to offer non-problematic outputs to web users with older/non-standard browsers.
Modernizr is a JavaScript library that uses feature detection techniques to determine whether or not the current browser is capable of CSS3 and HTML5 features like rgba(), border-radius, CSS Transitions & more.
It enables you to write pseudo-IF/ELSE statements in your CSS &, if wanted, it is possible to wirite conditional statements in JavaScript with the help of a "Modernizr JavaScript object" created.
Also, Modernizr adds support for styling HTML 5 elements. This allows you to use more semantic, forward-looking elements such as <section>, <header> and <dialog> without having to worry about them not working in Internet Explorer.
