We just finished with the April IE developer chat, where we got to talk with the Internet Explorer developers and ask them some questions. All but one of my questions was answered, but I kind of asked a shortened version of it again and got a response. Here are the questions I asked and the responses I got:

Peter Gurevich[MSFT] (Expert):

Q: [20] When you highlight text in IE, the selection automatically extends to grab whole words. I understand that this is a feature, but it tends to annoy me more than help. Are there any plans to change this behavior or provide an option to disable it?

A: We are actively investigating improvements in the text selection algorithm. Your experience should be much improved in the final release.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):

Q: [6] Lots of users find the IE7 interface bizarre and inconsistent with the rest of the shell when used on Windows XP. Are there any plans to provide a different appearance on Windows XP than on Windows Vista?

A: We are considering targeted changes to certain customizability features that would be XP specific, but in general the interface is going in the direction that Microsoft as a whole is, and was pioneered by apps like Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):

Q: [43] I'm glad you now provide a public bug database. What are your thoughts on: allowing users to view bugs without logging in; using it for IE developers to publicly chart *all* internal development; clearly showing the targetted version of IE for bug reports

A: We're working on a release right now so that people do not have to login in order to view bugs - this should come in the next few months at the latest. As for using it for all of our internal IE found bugs, we will continue to use our own tools for this, simply because they are so ingrained into our workflow and development environment right now. Could you reask your question for the last point? I'm not sure what exactly you mean there.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):

Q: [52] Max Stevens: On the bug reports where it shows the feedback type, status, etc., it would be nice to see the version of IE in which the bug is expected to be resolved.

A: Ah, ok, that makes sense. I'll suggest this to the folks who maintain the external bug database software, thanks!

I then asked, Which of these features do you hope for the version after IE7: XHTML, proper support for <q> (and CSS quotes), alternate stylesheets, :before/:after, .foo.bar {}, inherit, outline, display:table etc., CSS3 pseudo-classes, opacity, standard DOM events, SVG but I got no response.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):

Q: [90] What are the top priorities for standards support in the version after IE7?

A: I think our top priorities are continuing to remove the biggest problems for web developers, and adding the most-requested features. Off the cuff, I'd say features like generated content in CSS; javascript performance; more complete DOM.

Dave Massy (Moderator):

Q: [102] I have treid out the IE web developer plugin, and I notice it is missing some fundamental features like an on-the-fly CSS editor. Will we expect this to improve in the near future?

A: This is on our list but actually is a little more work than you might initially think so may need to wait for a future version. You can edit the individual styles of an element but we know that full style sheet editing would be nice.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):

Q: [104] Specifically, do you hope to support display:table, etc. and XHTML in the next version of IE?

A: Display:table is a tough one. It's high on our priority list; can't make any promises yet. As for XHTML, I presume you mean support for the mime type. Again, no promises there, because we won't support the mime type until I'm sure we get it completely right.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):

Q: [117] If you had to invent a mascot for IE right now, what would it be?

A: Ben & Jerry?

That last one was a reference to a (joking) suggestion I made in the general chat about them code naming versions of Internet Explorer after flavors of ice cream.

I really like the fact that the Internet Explorer developers have been coming out lately and talking directly with the users and web development community. It sounds like by Internet Explorer 8 or 9, most of the really big headaches of Internet Explorer in web development may be fixed. If Bill Gates holds true to his promise, this will be in about three years. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping things go well.

Update: It appears that the unanswered question I asked never made it to the developers for some reason. I was using Microsoft's web-based chat application and it showed in the chat box that I sent the question, but others in the chat say it never appeared.

Update: You can now view all of the questions and answers that came up during this chat session. Also, this particular chat session was apparently newsworthy, and the article even includes the response to one of my questions at the end.