Habrainterview with Ryan Servatius (Microsoft)
Some time ago we were able to meet with Ryan Servatius , the man who runs Microsoft at Internet Explorer, and talk with him a bit. The conversation turned out not very long, and not all questions, Ryan, unfortunately, could give an answer due to many circumstances. However, the interview turned out quite interesting. Including thanks to the Russian representatives of Microsoft, in particular, Ekaterina Levochkina, who leads the group of online products of the department of consumer software and online services of Microsoft in Russia, for which she thanks a lot.
So, Ryan, I'll start with the hottest question. How can you comment on the statements of many users that IE, and in particular the latest IE8, does not meet the standards that other browsers meet?
The new Internet Explorer 8 provides support for all major generally accepted standards, such as, for example, HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1, which are supported by other browsers. In addition, IE8 is backward compatible with previous versions of the Microsoft browser - IE6 and IE7. That is, both interoperability and backward compatibility in the new IE is fully ensured.
And what about the growing popularity and relevance of innovations, such as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)? This feature is supported by other modern browsers, but IE8 is not.
We try to cover all web standards, however, as for SVG, we still, unfortunately, do not have sufficient engineering resources to provide full-fledged quality support for scalable vector graphics. However, I want to emphasize that we listen carefully to what our community says, and try to take this opinion into account in our work.
What about mouse gestures?
As I just said, we always listen to the opinions of our users and try to proceed precisely from their needs.
')
Yes, but after all, the management of "gestures" with the mouse has long been implemented by competitors, which means there is a demand for this function. All the more surprising that this feature is not in IE8.
It all comes down to how we prioritize the implementation of all sorts of features in Internet Explorer. And we arrange them, I repeat, based on what the community tells us.
It turns out that the community didn't really want to get mouse gestures. Well, what about the so-called Mozilla-compliant standards? How does Microsoft treat them?
Firefox, being a standards-based browser, supports the HTML 4.01 and CSS2.1 I mentioned above, just like our new Internet Explorer does. In addition, we have done a great deal of cooperation with other browser manufacturers, as well as with the W3C.
And what do you personally like about alternative browsers?
You know, it is very nice to see that some features and capabilities implemented in IE appear in other browsers. In general, we do not live in a vacuum and use a variety of software products, like all other normal people.
Speaking about other browsers, I can not help but ask the very interesting question: will Internet Explorer ever be released under Linux?
Now there are no such plans.
Do you plan to abandon Trident in the future and switch to another browser engine?
How exactly and what exactly will be implemented in future versions of Internet Explorer directly depends on what feedback we get from our community, which consists of both advanced and ordinary users.
How long has work started on IE8?
Essentially two years ago.
And when will work on IE9 begin and what will be in it? :)
On this account I can only say one thing: Microsoft is an ardent supporter of innovation in browsers.
Then tell me at least about Internet Explorer on mobile devices. What are your plans in this direction?
I am not responsible for Windows Mobile, but I can say that work in this direction is underway, and a new mobile version of Internet Explorer will be supplied with Windows Mobile 6.5. Soon you will see everything yourself.
Obviously, IE8 is a product on which Microsoft now has high hopes. How actively and aggressively the company intends to promote a new browser, in particular, in our country - in Russia?
Catherine Levochkina: We will promote it very aggressively, simply because IE8 is perhaps the best product we have been creating at Microsoft lately. We are very proud of them, so we intend to distribute it actively. In particular, our partners will help us with this: Yandex, Mail.Ru and Rambler, as well as other companies that will join us later. In addition, we have already started to regularly contact the owners of some web projects with a desire to create and distribute their customized assembly IE8. The attractiveness of such assemblies was appreciated by very many. and we are happy about that.
Ryan, you are at the helm of managing the development of one of the most popular line of browsers in the world. What feelings do you have when you are on such an important post?
In general, this question would be worth asking our chief engineer of IE, I guess. However, as for me, I ... I really love what I do. I love it because we, I think, are doing something special. A team of quite young and very talented people is working on IE, this is a special team and, most importantly, the guys really like this job.
Tell us about your typical working day. And at the same time, what are your best and worst working days?
Well, actually, if we talk about my typical working day for the last three weeks, these are the following exciting activities: getting up very early, then meeting, then running to the airport, sleeping in an airplane on the way to another country, meeting again, then I very late I arrive at the hotel and the next day everything is new. Over the past few weeks I have been to a dozen countries on four continents. But this is all very exciting, nonetheless. After all, I have a great opportunity to personally communicate not only with the developers, but also with the users of our products, to get feedback from them.
As for the best and the worst working day, the day was especially successful for me if I received high-quality feedback from users, developers or computer manufacturers. Well, the worst working day for me is usually on an airplane where there is no access to the Internet.
Let's imagine that once Internet Explorer was on absolutely all PCs and thus occupied 100% of the market. What will you do in this case?
Not the best situation. Competition is very good, including in the browser market. It's great that users have such a wide choice, because it is useful both for us, for them, for the web, and for the development of innovations.
What then is the ultimate goal?
We want to make a web browser that will appeal to all Windows users. In addition, what users like today will not necessarily arrange them tomorrow, so this is a kind of endless race. And we are glad to participate in it.
So, Ryan, I'll start with the hottest question. How can you comment on the statements of many users that IE, and in particular the latest IE8, does not meet the standards that other browsers meet?
The new Internet Explorer 8 provides support for all major generally accepted standards, such as, for example, HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1, which are supported by other browsers. In addition, IE8 is backward compatible with previous versions of the Microsoft browser - IE6 and IE7. That is, both interoperability and backward compatibility in the new IE is fully ensured.
And what about the growing popularity and relevance of innovations, such as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)? This feature is supported by other modern browsers, but IE8 is not.
We try to cover all web standards, however, as for SVG, we still, unfortunately, do not have sufficient engineering resources to provide full-fledged quality support for scalable vector graphics. However, I want to emphasize that we listen carefully to what our community says, and try to take this opinion into account in our work.
What about mouse gestures?
As I just said, we always listen to the opinions of our users and try to proceed precisely from their needs.
')
Yes, but after all, the management of "gestures" with the mouse has long been implemented by competitors, which means there is a demand for this function. All the more surprising that this feature is not in IE8.
It all comes down to how we prioritize the implementation of all sorts of features in Internet Explorer. And we arrange them, I repeat, based on what the community tells us.
It turns out that the community didn't really want to get mouse gestures. Well, what about the so-called Mozilla-compliant standards? How does Microsoft treat them?
Firefox, being a standards-based browser, supports the HTML 4.01 and CSS2.1 I mentioned above, just like our new Internet Explorer does. In addition, we have done a great deal of cooperation with other browser manufacturers, as well as with the W3C.
And what do you personally like about alternative browsers?
You know, it is very nice to see that some features and capabilities implemented in IE appear in other browsers. In general, we do not live in a vacuum and use a variety of software products, like all other normal people.
Speaking about other browsers, I can not help but ask the very interesting question: will Internet Explorer ever be released under Linux?
Now there are no such plans.
Do you plan to abandon Trident in the future and switch to another browser engine?
How exactly and what exactly will be implemented in future versions of Internet Explorer directly depends on what feedback we get from our community, which consists of both advanced and ordinary users.
How long has work started on IE8?
Essentially two years ago.
And when will work on IE9 begin and what will be in it? :)
On this account I can only say one thing: Microsoft is an ardent supporter of innovation in browsers.
Then tell me at least about Internet Explorer on mobile devices. What are your plans in this direction?
I am not responsible for Windows Mobile, but I can say that work in this direction is underway, and a new mobile version of Internet Explorer will be supplied with Windows Mobile 6.5. Soon you will see everything yourself.
Obviously, IE8 is a product on which Microsoft now has high hopes. How actively and aggressively the company intends to promote a new browser, in particular, in our country - in Russia?
Catherine Levochkina: We will promote it very aggressively, simply because IE8 is perhaps the best product we have been creating at Microsoft lately. We are very proud of them, so we intend to distribute it actively. In particular, our partners will help us with this: Yandex, Mail.Ru and Rambler, as well as other companies that will join us later. In addition, we have already started to regularly contact the owners of some web projects with a desire to create and distribute their customized assembly IE8. The attractiveness of such assemblies was appreciated by very many. and we are happy about that.
Ryan, you are at the helm of managing the development of one of the most popular line of browsers in the world. What feelings do you have when you are on such an important post?
In general, this question would be worth asking our chief engineer of IE, I guess. However, as for me, I ... I really love what I do. I love it because we, I think, are doing something special. A team of quite young and very talented people is working on IE, this is a special team and, most importantly, the guys really like this job.
Tell us about your typical working day. And at the same time, what are your best and worst working days?
Well, actually, if we talk about my typical working day for the last three weeks, these are the following exciting activities: getting up very early, then meeting, then running to the airport, sleeping in an airplane on the way to another country, meeting again, then I very late I arrive at the hotel and the next day everything is new. Over the past few weeks I have been to a dozen countries on four continents. But this is all very exciting, nonetheless. After all, I have a great opportunity to personally communicate not only with the developers, but also with the users of our products, to get feedback from them.
As for the best and the worst working day, the day was especially successful for me if I received high-quality feedback from users, developers or computer manufacturers. Well, the worst working day for me is usually on an airplane where there is no access to the Internet.
Let's imagine that once Internet Explorer was on absolutely all PCs and thus occupied 100% of the market. What will you do in this case?
Not the best situation. Competition is very good, including in the browser market. It's great that users have such a wide choice, because it is useful both for us, for them, for the web, and for the development of innovations.
What then is the ultimate goal?
We want to make a web browser that will appeal to all Windows users. In addition, what users like today will not necessarily arrange them tomorrow, so this is a kind of endless race. And we are glad to participate in it.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/62634/
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