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AI Dreams => Welcome to AI Dreams forum. => Forum Feedback => Topic started by: Freddy on March 11, 2015, 10:01:55 pm

Title: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 11, 2015, 10:01:55 pm
Not as dramatic as it sounds.

I'll support minor fixes, but IE is out dated when it comes to new features.

For example, I'm trying to code an avatar to run on the home page. It works in other browsers but not in IE. I've spent hours trying to fix it so it works in IE, but I have just about had enough.

So folks this is a poll to see if you really want me to labour away for days trying to get advanced stuff to work in IE.

I am not for one moment going to have the site held back because MS cannot update it's product more often and get things ship shape. Other developers can do it fine it seems.

So cast your votes please :)
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Art on March 11, 2015, 10:30:47 pm
Done!
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Data on March 11, 2015, 11:03:57 pm
I have to use IE to test sites with, it still has something like 20% share of the market.

Don't blame me  ;)
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 12, 2015, 04:57:48 pm
I don't blame you Data, I blame Microsoft.

Last night I installed the IE Developer Build. Jumped through a few hoops, finally got it installed. Then I try to start it and it tells me its been abandoned. So why did MS have the download on their site when it no longer works ?

I then tried the new way of doing it using the Azure remote app. That actually worked but IE 12 is painfully slow. I tested some CSS in it and it still cannot handle it. It's useless to a developer because it will not work with localhost, it seems to be online sites only. So it's useless to me.

So I had enough of that and decided to uninstall the first abandoned version. Turns out it would not uninstall. I looked on the MS site for help. I found support tickets declaring that they know about it but 'will not fix'.

So now I have a crappy version of IE 12 and an abandoned developer version that I can't get rid of.

Thanks a lot M$.

And today I have spent another four hours on the avatar in IE. I'm trying to get the audio to work (voice). I'm using MP3. IE plays one volley okay, but it will not sync like the other browsers, so that's no good. Then after the first volley it complains about MIME type and will not play the sound, despite playing it the first time with no problem. I've spent hours checking everything and it's just IE that does this.

My TTS service generates WAV files originally. I added a WAV to MP3 converter called LAME, just so IE can play the audio, because guess what IE does not support WAV in HTML 5 audio. That's another great decision MS.

So I've had it with IE for this project. I tried my best. We're only as good as our tools.

 :ff:
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: 8pla.net on March 12, 2015, 05:36:05 pm
My comments are not meant to disparage Microsoft in any way.   
For the purpose of constructive criticism only, our discussion
here reminds me of a saying I heard used in other businesses, 
"There's more money in failure."
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: ranch vermin on March 12, 2015, 05:48:53 pm
As soon as IE started me off on the stupid BING! page,  i went BING! and i never used it ever again.
I just use chrome.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Ultron on March 12, 2015, 05:55:34 pm
I am surprised to learn that you would spend hours on a fix for IE... Were you under a dare or something? :D

20% share on the market... Not sure about the math in that (even less sure in the economic aspect) but I don't think anybody uses IE frequently except web builders and that is only for the sole purpose of debugging a website (or whatever the fancy term is).
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Data on March 12, 2015, 08:39:36 pm
A major headache browser compatibility can be for web developers.

I feel for you Freddy.

Here is a recent market share.
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php (http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php)

IE comes in second to Chrome but still ahead of Firefox and Safari.

Chrome has 43% of the total market, impressive but not unanimous.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: ivan.moony on March 12, 2015, 09:04:56 pm
I've had also problems with IE. Layout of my site works in Chrome and Firefox, but it is messed up with IE. With me the problem is in relative table cell sizes.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 12, 2015, 09:39:34 pm
To be fair the headache here is only caused by IE.

I'm not convinced by that 20% to be honest. I would wager that a lot of those IE 'users' are actually bots.

On Dreams apart from our good Mr Data, most IE hits are from bots and spiders. I keep an eye on these things.

Today we had someone/thing using Netscape Navigator 4.

But I digress. So far as Dreams is concerned IE makes up just 6% of visits. FF & Chrome beat it hands down.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 12, 2015, 09:49:02 pm
Quote from: Ultron on March 12, 2015, 05:55:34 pm
I am surprised to learn that you would spend hours on a fix for IE... Were you under a dare or something? :D

If only. I'm just trying to be professional about it and code things so they work in different browsers. There's a lot of movement away from IE now, so either hopefully they will finally drop it or update things more regularly.

Don't get me wrong though, IE can be fine for standard web fare but if you want to do more modern things it just isn't there.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Data on March 12, 2015, 09:54:58 pm
Have you tested your project on tablet and phone browsers yet ?

According to the stats I get from sites their usage is increasing rapidly.

I also see quite a lot of genuine IE users both on my sites and customers I visit.     
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 12, 2015, 10:01:19 pm
Nope I have not tried it on mobiles yet. I'm not looking forward to that !

But yes, there are IE users out there of course, but I don't think there are as many as we might be led to believe.

With MS moving to this development channel maybe IE will get updates more often. That's what I read they were planning.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Data on March 12, 2015, 10:16:04 pm
We live in hope  ;)
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Ultron on March 12, 2015, 10:56:47 pm
Quote from: Freddy on March 12, 2015, 10:01:19 pm
With MS moving to this development channel maybe IE will get updates more often. That's what I read they were planning.


There were in fact some 'leaked' snapshots from Windows 10 which included images of a 'refined' IE, however the only conclusion one can derive from images is only about the looks. It may be a solid browser update or just a new makeup.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Art on March 12, 2015, 11:28:12 pm
In mid 2000's (around 2004), IE was way ahead of the mark.

Google was about to have an IPO of a whopping $85.00 / share of stock!!

It is now March of 2015 and that share is worth $555.00 / share!!

That's about a piddling 653 % increase! Imagine if you would have purchased 10 or 100 or more shares in 2004!!

Imagine, all the people....

##########
Back with subject at hand, IE has simply coasted along while Google has been blazing new trails, acquiring new upstarts, interesting ventures, challenging the naysayers and forging ahead!

Apple...well...I guess they will always be the elitist company that they have been! Eventually, their market share will dwindle as if anyone really cared!
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: 8pla.net on March 16, 2015, 12:30:45 am
Of course it is possible to...

Code

<!--[if IE]> Downgrade to the old theme <![endif]-->


for users who may be on IE due to company policy.
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 16, 2015, 12:21:29 pm
Yes but this issue is not with the theme, it's to do with web audio...
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Data on March 16, 2015, 07:11:52 pm
How odd is life sometimes ?

Expect to see more people using IE again now Chrome no longer supports Silverlight.

I was called to a customer who can no longer watch SKY TV in chrome, "SKY on the go" relies on Silverlight to play videos and do some clever interaction things.

Not to worry I managed to get IE 11 working fine.

Chrome lovers have a play at this game, if you can  :P
http://www.vectorlight.net/games/sandmania.aspx (http://www.vectorlight.net/games/sandmania.aspx)

Thanks Google, another £45 to go in my pocket, you guys rock  O0
   
Title: Re: Thinking of ending support for Internet Explorer
Post by: Freddy on March 16, 2015, 07:17:48 pm
I've played with Silverlight before, it seemed quite good, but I thought they had abandoned it, I must be thinking of something else.

I have four browsers installed so should be fine  ;D

I just use Chrome more because I think it's the best. I can happily live without Silverlight, it doesn't seem that it's really taken off yet anyway.

Well done on the windfall :)