Internet Explorer 7

[TUS 373]

I should know by now that a sort of "Newton meets Sod's Law" exists whenever Microsoft launch new software. "Every movement has an equal and opposite one that makes something old go tits up when you introduce something new."

I noticed tonight that my Hewlett Packard "HP Director" printer/scanner interface program does not work when IE7 has been installed. After playing around, setting restore points, rolling back etc, I have narrowed it down emphatically to IE7. Taken it off, and HP Director works again. Put it back, HPD does nothing - won't start at all.

Well done Microsoft - one step forwards, two steps back. And you want me to consider "upgrading" to Vista in the future which you will tell me is "better/quicker/more stable" than any other turding O/S that fell out of your ivory arses.

Thank God for Firefox.

[agent006]

Yes, it's microsoft's fault that HP's shitty software can't cope with a broser upgrade.

[Bodo]

agent006 said:

Yes, it's microsoft's fault that HP's shitty software can't cope with a broser upgrade.

Can you elaborate please?

[thepassenger]

Bodo said:

agent006 said:

Yes, it's microsoft's fault that HP's shitty software can't cope with a broser upgrade.

Can you elaborate please?

It's microsofts fault that Hewlett-Packard's dev team made use of function calls that were either software specific and/or not totally within spec of the API so when a new version of the API appears their software mysteriously breaks and no update has appeared to work around this glaringly obvious ck up by them.

There ya go, one elboration

Someone padlock this please?

[anonymous-user]

thepassenger said:

Bodo said:

agent006 said:

Yes, it's microsoft's fault that HP's shitty software can't cope with a broser upgrade.

Can you elaborate please?

It's microsofts fault that Hewlett-Packard's dev team made use of function calls that were either software specific and/or not totally within spec of the API so when a new version of the API appears their software mysteriously breaks and no update has appeared to work around this glaringly obvious ck up by them.

There ya go, one elboration

Someone padlock this please?

Ahhhhh... the voice of reason and logic. Nice one!!

[puggit]

MS have made the release of IE 7 a critical update...

So anyone with critical updates happening automatically will download this and it will be installed.

Mrs Puggit works for one of the big software companies, and the product she looks after is also affected by the fact that it doesn't work with IE7...

It's not quite so simple to say HP (and other) developers are lazy - I think MS haven't played this one too well either!

[tallbloke]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about i.e.7 from the open source community, which works to w3c standards rather than M$ interpretation of them.

[BliarOut]

thepassenger said:

Bodo said:

agent006 said:

Yes, it's microsoft's fault that HP's shitty software can't cope with a broser upgrade.

Can you elaborate please?

It's microsofts fault that Hewlett-Packard's dev team made use of function calls that were either software specific and/or not totally within spec of the API so when a new version of the API appears their software mysteriously breaks and no update has appeared to work around this glaringly obvious ck up by them.

There ya go, one elboration

Someone padlock this please?

That's assuming MS actually did implement what they say in the API of course

[jamieboy]

tallbloke said:

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about i.e.7 from the open source community

No way! Really? Have you asked turkeys for their views on Christmas yet?

Seriously, what sort of things have been mentioned? I'm curious because I've not found anything wrong with IE7 yet, although there are a few sites that have been coded specifically to work with IE6 that don't work perfectly, but in much the same way as the HP software mentioned above I'd say that was the fault of the developers of those sites.

If there are problems, it'd be good if you could give us a heads-up.

[tallbloke]

jamieboy said:

tallbloke said:

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about i.e.7 from the open source community

No way! Really? Have you asked turkeys for their views on Christmas yet?
If there are problems, it'd be good if you could give us a heads-up.

Mostly about tables formatting in unexpected ways.

[BliarOut]

tallbloke said:

jamieboy said:

tallbloke said:

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about i.e.7 from the open source community

No way! Really? Have you asked turkeys for their views on Christmas yet?
If there are problems, it'd be good if you could give us a heads-up.

Mostly about tables formatting in unexpected ways.

That's because MS didn't stick to the rules in IE6.. In fairness they've become much more compliant with IE7 which is why IE6 stuff breaks.

[TUS 373]

Well, I have gone back to IE6 now until someone, either MS or HP patch things up. I just find it annoying that when you fix something that ain't broke, it breaks something IYSWIM, however is to blame.

Personally, I put the onus upon MS to make sure that when a new release comes out, especially a critical one, that is backwards compatible with exisiting software. For users like me who do not pretend to be software programmers or the like, the updates cause problems, and fix 'problems' that I did not actually have.

Anyone have a contact email address where I can flag up this conflict to Hewlett Packard, incase they haven't discovered it for themselves yet?

[tallbloke]

TUS 373 said:

Well, I have gone back to IE6 now until someone, either MS or HP patch things up. I just find it annoying that when you fix something that ain't broke, it breaks something IYSWIM, however is to blame.

Personally, I put the onus upon MS to make sure that when a new release comes out, especially a critical one, that is backwards compatible with exisiting software. For users like me who do not pretend to be software programmers or the like, the updates cause problems, and fix 'problems' that I did not actually have.

Anyone have a contact email address where I can flag up this conflict to Hewlett Packard, incase they haven't discovered it for themselves yet?

I suspect their complaints dept phones will be ringing off the hook.

[Nacnud]

jamieboy said:

I'm curious because I've not found anything wrong with IE7 yet, although there are a few sites that have been coded specifically to work with IE6 that don't work perfectly

I'm responsible for an application that has a web page that looks more like an application.
It's got over 1Mb of Javascript in it and pushes IE5.5 / IE6 to the bleeding edge of its capability.
The content is heavily table based.

IE7 has meant updating the supported browser guard and fixing a minor test which fails when the page saves itself to disc. The latter problem is seriously bending IE and the web security model but was easily fixed to cope with all versions of IE.

So far - IE7 seems far less intrusive that the XP SP2 change which tightened the security model and took some real head scratching to work around.

P.S. Interestingly - AOL and others now seem to be heading down the heavy client model with loads of JS. We've been there, got fed up with the support issues, and are currently re-engineering the product as a nearly script-free client.

[Bodo]

thepassenger said:

There ya go, one elboration

Someone padlock this please?

Why padlock? I think this developed into a quite interesting thread.

[malman]

tallbloke said:

I suspect their complaints dept phones will be ringing off the hook.

Nothing unusual there for the HP printer driver complaints dept

[bobthemonkey]

i'm away from home at the moment, but dies IE7 still bugger up the config suite for that BTHomehub router they give away free.

[__LEE__]

puggit said:

MS have made the release of IE 7 a critical update...

So anyone with critical updates happening automatically will download this and it will be installed.

Mrs Puggit works for one of the big software companies, and the product she looks after is also affected by the fact that it doesn't work with IE7...

It's not quite so simple to say HP (and other) developers are lazy - I think MS haven't played this one too well either!

There is one caveat to this. Once the critical update is downloaded the update specifically asks the user if they want to install IE7 and if the no option is selected then the update misses it out and carries on. This is not normaly behaviour for Windows update and Microsoft have specifically added it in to give the user the opportunity to opt out of the update.

As for the corporate environment, there should be specific control of updates before they get to user PC's to ensure they do not cause problems. Any update can potentially break something.

The fault is with HP and not Microsoft in this instance.

[puggit]

__LEE__ said:

As for the corporate environment, there should be specific control of updates before they get to user PC's to ensure they do not cause problems. Any update can potentially break something.

Should be - but in practice, how many bother!? I sell software and most SME customers don't even bother to install it on a test server first...

[Don]

I ing love IE7.

Its virtually guaranteed to break people's apps.

Its a wind blowing money and all you've got to do is wave your arms around.

Now stop ing complaining, get out there. and grab your share.