HTML5 and CSS3 Capabilities in Internet Explorer 8

Question

I know that Internet Explorer does not support HTML5 or CSS3. I know there are javascript hacks to at least make Internet Explorer play nice with the new tags like:

<nav>, <header>, <footer>, <article>, <aside>, and <section> 

<script>
   document.createElement('header');
   document.createElement('section');
   document.createElement('article');
   document.createElement('aside');
   document.createElement('nav');
   document.createElement('footer');
</script>

Using http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js

and I know for IE 8, one can use some CSS to make rounded corners.

I'd like to use the D3 Javascript Library for visualizing connections ( see this demo in particular: http://mbostock.github.io/d3/talk/20111116/pack-hierarchy.html)

So my question is: Would it be possible to make the demo work using IE8 with some of the hacks known? Are there any hacks out there that would make this easy and feasible?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

That looks like it uses SVG. IE8 doesn't support it natively, so the accepted answer to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9353798/svg-support-for-internet-explorer-8-and-below will probably be helpful here. See also: https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/wiki/HTML5-Cross-browser-Polyfills#svg — Olly Hodgson, Nov 26 '13 at 17:04
The easiest way to see what works in IE8 would be here: http://html5please.com/#gtie7 — Rob, Nov 26 '13 at 17:06
There are a few libraries specific to IE8 and SVG. You can find a basic list here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9353798/svg-support-for-internet-explorer-8-and-below — Wayne, Nov 26 '13 at 17:27

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 26 '13 at 17:11

Short answer: No

Long answer: HTML5shim is not really a hack, but more of a collection of default styles and rules that translates semantic HTML, which can be anything, into something that looks like it would on a browser that actually knows what <header> means.

The CSS rounded corners is a specific IE8 implementation and has nothing/very little to do with CSS3/

It doesn't add support for stuff like Canvas or SVG or CSS3 that IE8 lacks.

D3 itself doesn't support IE8. From the D3 wiki:

D3 supports so-called “modern” browsers, which generally means everything except IE8 and below. D3 is tested against Firefox, Chrome (Chromium), Safari (WebKit), Opera and IE9. Parts of D3 may work in older browsers, as the core D3 library has minimal requirements: JavaScript and the W3C DOM API. For IE8, the compatibility library Aight is recommended. D3 uses the Selectors API Level 1, but you can preload Sizzle for compatibility. You'll need a modern browser to use SVG and CSS3 Transitions. D3 is not a compatibility layer, so if your browser doesn't support standards, you're out of luck. Sorry!

At this point, you got to ask yourself is there a specific reason to support IE8? IE8 is now 4 versions behind the latest IE version and about 4 and a half years old. Are you restricted by some archaic network policy?

In that case, the answer is no. You have alternatives for IE8 such as ActiveX, Flash or Java — Mataniko, Nov 26 '13 at 17:21

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 26 '13 at 18:20

0

You can try to use libreries as RaphaelJS(http://raphaeljs.com/) which provides a SVG fallback ( sometimes is flash), but you dont have worry about it, it degrades to fallback when it not supported.

answered Nov 26 '13 at 18:20

jonathansamines

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HTML5 and CSS3 Capabilities in Internet Explorer 8

2 Answers2