Oh why is IE such a time waster?

Well, that's probably not the right question to ask, as its easily answered:
"Internet Explorer is such a time waster as it does not adhere to web standards, and does not provide any sort of helpful error messages."

A better question is why is IE so difficult to work with. The answer to that is probably something along the lines of "Microsoft did not really care about developers who were not using its products."

As you have probably gathered by now, I have just spent the best part of four hours with a Javascript (a rant by itself) error that only appears in IE. What's more, IE provided very little diagnostics about what was actually wrong. So I was basically left with adding lines of code to see if that shifted the error about, so I could gradually narrow down where the actual problem was.

We got there in the end, but it really should not be that difficult. If IE had something like Firebug, it would make the whole thing a lot easier. So would IE adhering to published standards, but I suspect that porcines will be taking off on skis in hell before that happens.

Spot the difference

1. Stealing an election in Zimbabwe
2. How to Get Your Platform Accepted as a Standard - Microsoft Style

Really it quite amazes me the lengths that Microsoft will go to to perpetuate their monopoly, despite all the lawsuits and fines, despite the strength of public feeling against them, they believe they can behave exactly as they like.

I guess it is the fault of the courts and our law makers not to take them to task sooner. The American justice system certainly seems to have failed us. Lets just hope that the EU can stick to their guns and keep fining Microsoft till they learn to play nicely.