Comments on: HTCs and Service Pack 2

By: Andrew-J2000

Andrew-J2000 — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Nice one, never knew that. HTC is not really standard anyhow, so thats not too much of a problem:)

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

It’s important however, since HTCs are used for the IE7 project, to name a famous example.

By: Peej

Peej — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Yeah leaned all about this the hard way. Problem is that IIS on SP2′d systems or on Win2k3 will not serve files it doesn’t recognise.
We had this with .VBD files (the old way of running VB apps inside IE)you need to add a mime type for the file you wish to serve ( and in some cases you need to reboot the server)or you’ll get a 404 error…

Theres info on this at http://www.wwwcoder.com/main/Default.aspx?tabid=68&mid=407&site=1880&parentid=170

By: webgodjj

webgodjj — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Just because that the IE7 project uses it doesn’t really make it important. If you want fabulous designs, and want to make the design world a better place, stick with standards.

By: Ben Curtis

Ben Curtis — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

I think webgodjj may be thinking of Microsoft’s next IE — the IE7 project (http://dean.edwards.name/IE7) is specifically useful because it allows you to code to standards and still get IE5+ to recognize your code. Without IE7, I’d have all sorts of CSS hacks throughout my stylesheets in order to make IE comply. CSS hacks may seem like standards, but until they standardize the bugs the hacks rely on I try to stay away.

By: Jed Watson

Jed Watson — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

I’m as big a pusher of standards (and firefox ;-) as they come, but in a commercial situation where you’ve got a CMS built for IE6 only, written mostly with .HTC files, this WAS really important. For some of us it’s got to do with money and functionality, not design. In my opinion Microsoft stuffed up by burning the very people they enticed into their new technology years ago.

So thanks a lot for the info - much appreciated.

By: Dean Edwards

Dean Edwards — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

IE7 no longer uses HTCs. It is now a pure JavaScript solution. Some developers did not have access to their servers and could not make the necessary configurations there.