WaSP releases Acid2 Test; Opera fails
Published April 10th, 2005 12:02 PM EDT By Daniel GoldmanThe Web Standards Project (WaSP) has released their Acid2 test, a test page for web browsers. It has been written to help browser vendors make sure their products correctly support features that are part of web standards.
Acid2 tests for features that are part of existing standards but haven’t been supported by major browsers. Acid2 is a complex web page. Though not all web standards are tested, it uses features that are not in common use yet, because of lack of support, and it crams many tests into one page.
The Acid2 has been proposed by Hakon Wium Lie, CTO of Opera Software, after Microsoft announced its plans for Internet Explorer (IE) 7. “Microsoft now has the chance to redeem itself with regard to Web interoperability. All it needs to do is make sure IE 7 passes the Acid2 test before shipping”, wrote Lie.
Interestingly enough, Opera 8.0 beta and below fails the Acid2 test. Acid2 uses a smiley face for its test. If it fails, the face will be distorted and/or shown partly in red. Here is how the smiley face should be rendered.
Although Opera failed the test, it at least had some resemblance of a face in it rendition. With IE’s rendition, however, you can’t even tell that it is supposed to be a face. Firefox has even worse support for it than IE, it barley displays the page. (Edit: After being corrected by multiple people and seeing the true fact for myself on the firefox version on my work computer, I take back my statement about firefox. For some unknown reason, the firefox (1.0.2) on my home computer, rendered the face really bad, much worse than IE. I have seen multiple screenshots to suggest otherwise. I regret this error.)
As the test name implies, this will be the second acid test put forward for Web browsers. The original acid test, created by Todd Fahrner in 1997, was instrumental in ensuring interoperability between browsers in their CSS1 implementations. The existence of the acid test forced browser vendors to fix their implementations or face embarrassment; the test was created so that testers could easily see which browsers failed the test.
Even Microsoft made sure IE 6 passed the acid test. As a result of the acid test, CSS became usable and has changed the way Web sites are authored.
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Excuse me. Are you using a prehistoric version of Firefox, or are you biased?
Firefox consistently does the most faithful rendering. To the extent that any rendering of acid2 is consistent?
(Besides: This test is not yet announced on the WaSP page, and may very well not be the final or official version)
I used firefox version 1.0.2.
And WaSP does have a link to the Acid2 test from their homepage. On the left navigation bar Act > Acid2.
Firefox 1.0.2 rendering it best of all.
Shame you feel the need to diss Firefox at every opportunity. I’ve just put Firefox 1.0 through the test, and while it doesn’t do spectacularly better than Opera, it’s certainly no worse.
I’m a big fan of Opera, but I’m no fan of shoddy journalism.
Shame you feel the need to diss Firefox at every opportunity.
Sorry if this upset you, I was just stating a mere fact.
How could you say Firefox is “even worse”?! You mean “even worse than IE”?! Did you really try it?
Based on my testing, Firefox gives me the best output on this “Acid2″ test. At least Firefox doesn’t show the red background.
Still don’t believe? Here are the outputs by Firefox and Opera.
By the way, if you are brave enough to install the latest nightly/beta of Mozilla (or Seamonkey) 1.8, you’ll find that the rendering is even closer to the reference rendering.
So how could it possibly be worse than IE? :-S
Qoute
Although Opera failed the test, it at least had some resemblance of a face in it rendition. With IE’s rendition, however, you can’t even tell that it is supposed to be a face. Firefox has even worse support for it than IE, it barley displays the page.
I’m sorry, but did you actually test this before you made such a statement? Other’s have documented their findings with screencaps
http://theseblog.free.fr/2005/04/so-is-your-browser-any-good-at-css2.php
I think the screencaps talk for themselves. Even the Opera 8 beta screencap is a far cry from any Fx rendering.
Daniel Goldman wrote:
“Sorry if this upset you, I was just stating a mere fact.”
Don’t be daft: I’m not upset - just disappointed with your standard of reporting. You wrote that “Firefox has even worse support for it than IE, it barley displays the page.”.
That is not a fact - not given any up-to-date version of Firefox.
Mark - minghong - birdy,
Thanks for your corrections, I have made the necessary edit to my post.
In no way were my intentions to spread wrong facts about firefox. I think firefox is a very good browser.
Daniel
Without wanting to start a flame-war, I think Firefox’s rendering instinctively looks closer to the correct rendering than Opera’s. And I think the fair comparisons to do would be Opera 7.54 vs Firefox 1.0.x and Opera 8 beta vs the latest Firefox nightlies.
However, an error-by-error count may turn out to show Opera is the winner. Anyone good at this kind of stuff who wants to count?
Interestingly, in which browser the reference rendering was made?
Looking forward for Opera 8.1
None - it was made with a graphics app.
Daniel wrote:
Mark - minghong - birdy, Thanks for your corrections…
On reflection, Dan, we might have been a bit hard in our responses.
Nowt wrong with the occasional mistake - keep up the good work
View Screenshot of safari
Source
Opera 8 shouldn’t be released until it passes the Acid2 test.
and does Opera 8 has Acid2 support?
hm, unexpected surprise - Opera 8.5 is free now