The JavaScript Performance of IE6 Vs. IE7
As far as JavaScript is concerned, Internet Explorer 7 is huge improvement upon Internet Explorer 6. This improvement can be seen both by developers and general users; naturally, the difference for developers is what causes the performance increase for the users.
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Browser Wars
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Browsers were not always standard and web pages were not always cross compatible. This time during the internet's early commercial development is called the "Browser Wars" and is the source of all both the current web standards we have today and Internet Explorer's compatibility issues. Since there were no accepted browser standards, different browsers had different features, so some websites would work better in one browser but not in another.
Page Rendering
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A byproduct of this was that different browsers would actually render the same page differently, something that is still possible but does not happen to such a dramatic degree anymore. Eventually, Internet Explorer defeated Netscape by offering their browser for free; the practice of the time was to charge for browsers as one might for any other piece of new software.
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FireFox and Standards Compliance
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Netscape open-sourced its browser and it was eventually renamed to FireFox. FireFox's major selling point, though it was now free, was that it was "standards compliant" and more secure than Internet Explorer; by this point web standards were starting to take shape and there had already been some high profile cases of security holes in IE leading to malware infections. Unlike FireFox, IE did not so fully embrace standards compliance.
IE 6 and Standards Compliance
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IE, a Microsoft product, was seen by the company as a way to push Microsoft technologies to be used on the internet. This caused a serious problem for web developers, as there code, particularly those written in languages like JavaScript, would not always work properly. Developers began adding lines to their code that checked to see if the browser was IE and, if the result was positive, modify the code or run a different version of the page's code. Essentially, web developers were forced to compensate for Microsoft's unwillingness to comply to web standards by writing two versions of some of their more complex web pages and applications.
IE 7's Improvements
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IE 7 was Microsoft's first real attempt to become more standards compliant and, by extension, make the job of web developers much easier. JavaScript in particular was much easier to use in conjunction with IE 7 compared to IE 6, as there was no longer a need to modify standard JavaScript to run properly and a bit faster in the browser.
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References
- Photo Credit five mouses image by Aleksandr Lobanov from Fotolia.com
