Trident (layout engine)
Encyclopedia
Trident is the name of the layout engine
for the Microsoft Windows
version of Internet Explorer
.
It was first introduced with the release of Internet Explorer version 4.0
in October 1997; it has been steadily upgraded and remains in use today. For versions 7
and 8
of Internet Explorer, Microsoft made significant changes to the Trident layout engine to improve compliance with web standards
and add support for new technologies. With version 9
of Internet Explorer, Microsoft intends to comply with many modern web standards, and also intends to significantly update the layout engine to be more competitive and modern compared to other current layout engines.
to allow software developer
s to easily add web browsing functionality to their own applications. It presents a COM
interface for accessing and editing web pages in any COM-supported environment, like C++
and .NET
. For instance, a web browser control can be added to a C++ program and Trident can then be used to access the page currently displayed in the web browser and retrieve element values. Events from the web browser control can also be captured. Trident functionality becomes available by linking the file mshtml.dll to the software project.
for Windows from 4.0 onwards use Trident, and it is also used by various other web browser
s and software components (see Internet Explorer shell
s). In Windows 98
, Windows Me
, and Windows 2000
, it is also used for the Windows file manager/shell, Windows Explorer
. The Add/Remove Programs tool in Windows 2000 uses Trident to render the list of installed programs, and in Windows XP it is also used for the User Accounts Control Panel
, which is an HTML Application
. Trident however was not used by the Internet Explorer for Mac (which uses Tasman
), nor by the early versions of Internet Explorer Mobile.
Some other Trident-based applications include:
, the core standards that are used to build web pages (HTML and CSS) are sometimes implemented in an incomplete fashion. For example, there was no support for the
CSS 2.1 is fully supported as well as some CSS 3.0 attributes. Internet Explorer 9
has introduced support for CSS 3, HTML5, and SVG, as well as other modern web standards. This lack of standards compliance has been known to cause rendering bugs and lack of support for modern web technologies, which often increases development time for web pages.
, was used in Internet Explorer 5
for Mac. Development of Internet Explorer for Mac was halted in roughly 2003, but development of Tasman continued to a limited extent, and was later included in Office 2004 for Mac. Office for Mac 2011
uses the open source WebKit
engine. Microsoft's new web design product, Expression Web
as well as Visual Studio 2008 and later do not use Internet Explorer's Trident engine, but rather a different engine.
Layout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
for the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
version of Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
.
It was first introduced with the release of Internet Explorer version 4.0
Internet Explorer 4
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".It was one of the main participants of the first...
in October 1997; it has been steadily upgraded and remains in use today. For versions 7
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years...
and 8
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...
of Internet Explorer, Microsoft made significant changes to the Trident layout engine to improve compliance with web standards
Web standards
Web standards is a general term for the formal standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building web sites,...
and add support for new technologies. With version 9
Internet Explorer 9
Windows Internet Explorer 9 is the current version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It was released to the public on March 14, 2011 at 21:00 PDT. Internet Explorer 9 supports several CSS 3 properties, embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System, and...
of Internet Explorer, Microsoft intends to comply with many modern web standards, and also intends to significantly update the layout engine to be more competitive and modern compared to other current layout engines.
Use in software development
Trident was designed as a software componentComponent-based software engineering
Component-based software engineering is a branch of software engineering that emphasizes the separation of concerns in respect of the wide-ranging functionality available throughout a given software system...
to allow software developer
Software developer
A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process. Their work includes researching, designing, developing, and testing software. A software developer may take part in design, computer programming, or software project management...
s to easily add web browsing functionality to their own applications. It presents a COM
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
interface for accessing and editing web pages in any COM-supported environment, like C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
and .NET
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
. For instance, a web browser control can be added to a C++ program and Trident can then be used to access the page currently displayed in the web browser and retrieve element values. Events from the web browser control can also be captured. Trident functionality becomes available by linking the file mshtml.dll to the software project.
Versions
| Trident version | MSHTML.dll version | Internet Explorer Internet Explorer Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year... version |
Internet Explorer Mobile version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No version | 4.0.x | 4.0 Internet Explorer 4 Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".It was one of the main participants of the first... |
Initial version. | |
| 5.0.x | 5.0 Internet Explorer 5 Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 was a graphical web browser released in March 1999 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but initially with versions available for Apple Macintosh, Sun Solaris, and HP-UX. It was one of the main participants of the first browser war... |
Improved CSS CSS -Computing:*Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to describe the style of document presentations in web development*Central Structure Store in the PHIGS 3D API*Closed source software, software that is not distributed with source code... 1 support and had sweeping changes in CSS2 rendering. |
||
| 5.5.x | 5.5 | Corrected issues with CSS handling. | ||
| 6.0.x | 6.0 Internet Explorer 6 Internet Explorer 6 is the sixth major revision of Internet Explorer, a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems... |
Corrected the box model Internet Explorer box model bug The Internet Explorer box model bug refers to the way in which earlier versions of Internet Explorer handle the sizing of elements in a web page, which differs from the standard way recommended by the W3C for the Cascading Style Sheets language... and added quirks mode Quirks mode In computing, quirks mode refers to a technique used by some web browsers for the sake of maintaining backward compatibility with web pages designed for older browsers, instead of strictly complying with W3C and IETF standards in standards mode.... with DTD Document Type Definition Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages... switching. |
||
| 7.0.x | 7.0 Internet Explorer 7 Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years... |
Fixed many CSS rendering issues and added partial PNG alpha support. | ||
| 6.0 | IEMobile 6 combines many features of IE 6,7 and 8. | |||
| 3.1 | 7.0 | 7.0 | Second port on a mobile system of Trident. IE Mobile version for Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market... . |
|
| 4.0 | 8.0.x | 8.0 Internet Explorer 8 Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available... |
First version to pass the Acid 2 test. Added almost full support for CSS 2.1. | |
| 5.0 | 9.0.x | 9.0 Internet Explorer 9 Windows Internet Explorer 9 is the current version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It was released to the public on March 14, 2011 at 21:00 PDT. Internet Explorer 9 supports several CSS 3 properties, embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System, and... |
9.0 | Added support for SVG, XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written.... , HTML5, and CSS 3. Added a new hardware-accelerated JScript JScript JScript is a scripting language based on the ECMAScript standard that is used in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.JScript is implemented as a Windows Script engine. This means that it can be "plugged in" to any application that supports Windows Script, such as Internet Explorer, Active Server Pages,... engine named Chakra Chakra (JScript engine) Chakra is a JScript engine developed by Microsoft for its Internet Explorer 9 web browser. A distinctive feature of the 32-bit version of the engine is that it JIT compiles scripts on a separate CPU core, parallel to the web browser... . Scores 100/100 on the Acid3 Acid3 Acid3 test is a web test page from the Web Standards Project that checks a web browser's compliance with elements of various web standards, particularly the Document Object Model and JavaScript.... test. Included with IE 9 Mobile in Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango". |
| 6.0 | 10.0.x | 10.0 Internet Explorer 10 Windows Internet Explorer 10 is the next version of Internet Explorer currently being developed by Microsoft, and the successor to Internet Explorer 9. On April 12, 2011, Microsoft released the first "IE10 Platform Preview", which only runs on Windows 7; later platform previews only run on Windows 8... |
Support for CSS3 multi-column layout, CSS3 grid layout, CSS3 flexible box layout, CSS3 gradients, ES5 strict mode, Positioned Floats, CSS stylesheet limit lifted, CSSOM Floating Point Value support, Improved hit testing APIs, Media Query Listeners, HTML5: Support for async attribute on script elements, HTML5 Drag and Drop, HTML5 File API, HTML5 Sandbox, HTML5 Web Workers and some Web Performance APIs. | |
Trident-based applications
All versions of Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
for Windows from 4.0 onwards use Trident, and it is also used by various other web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
s and software components (see Internet Explorer shell
Internet Explorer shell
An Internet Explorer shell is any computer software that uses the Trident rendering engine of the Internet Explorer web browser. Although the term "Trident shell" is probably more accurate for describing these applications , the term "Internet Explorer shell", or "IE shell", is in common parlance...
s). In Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
, Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
, and Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
, it is also used for the Windows file manager/shell, Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
. The Add/Remove Programs tool in Windows 2000 uses Trident to render the list of installed programs, and in Windows XP it is also used for the User Accounts Control Panel
User Account Control
User Account Control is a technology and security infrastructure introduced with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, with a more relaxed version also present in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2...
, which is an HTML Application
HTML Application
An HTML Application is a Microsoft Windows program whose source code consists of HTML, Dynamic HTML, and one or more scripting languages supported by Internet Explorer, such as VBScript or JScript. The HTML is used to generate the user interface, and the scripting language is used for the program...
. Trident however was not used by the Internet Explorer for Mac (which uses Tasman
Tasman (layout engine)
Tasman was a layout engine developed by Microsoft for inclusion in the Macintosh version of Internet Explorer 5. Tasman was an attempt to improve support for web standards, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium. At the time of its release, Tasman was seen as the layout engine with the best...
), nor by the early versions of Internet Explorer Mobile.
Some other Trident-based applications include:
- AOL ExplorerAOL ExplorerAOL Explorer, previously known as AOL Browser, is a graphical web browser based on the Microsoft Trident layout engine and was released by AOL. In July 2005, AOL launched AOL Explorer as a free download and as an optional download with AIM version 5.9. AOL Explorer supports tabbed...
, a web browser - AOL Instant MessengerAOL Instant MessengerAOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...
6.x, which uses Trident to render conversation and profile windows, and advertisement panels - Avant BrowserAvant BrowserAvant Browser is a freeware web browser from a Chinese programmer named Anderson Che, which unites the Trident layout engine built into Windows with an interface intended to be more feature-rich, flexible and ergonomic than Microsoft's Internet Explorer . It runs on Windows 2000 and above,...
- Bento BrowserWinampWinamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
(built into WinampWinampWinamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
) - EA Link, incompatible with Trident as of Internet Explorer 7 RC2
- EnigmaEnigma BrowserThe Enigma Browser was previously a shareware Internet Explorer shell but is now freeware. It uses Internet Explorer's Trident layout engine. It was made for Windows XP,2000,ME,98.It presently incorporates many features including:*Popup Killer...
, a web browser - Google TalkGoogle TalkGoogle Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005...
, which uses Trident to render chat windows and profile cards - GreenBrowserGreenBrowserGreenBrowser is a freeware web browser based on Internet Explorer's core. GreenBrowser based upon the Trident rendering engine used in Internet Explorer....
, which is also presented at the BrowserChoice.euBrowserChoice.euBrowserChoice.eu is a website that was created in March 2010 as the result of the European Union Microsoft competition case which involved legal proceedings by the EU against Microsoft that found that, via market dominance of the operating system market with Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer's...
page - IE TabIE TabIE Tab is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox, Flock, Google Chrome and SeaMonkey web browsers which allows users to view pages using the Internet Explorer layout engine. This may be useful for viewing pages that only work in Internet Explorer without exiting the user's preferred web browser...
, a Firefox and Google ChromeGoogle ChromeGoogle Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
add-on used to render pages with Trident within the Firefox user interface. - Impulse (content delivery), uses Trident to render "Explore" page, as well as several of the "Community" pages
- iRider, a web browser
- LimeWireLimeWireLimeWire is a free peer-to-peer file sharing client program that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other operating systems supported by the Java software platform. LimeWire uses the gnutella network as well as the BitTorrent protocol. A free software version and a purchasable "enhanced"...
, which renders the page 'New@Lime' - LunascapeLunascape (web browser)Lunascape is a web browser developed by Lunascape Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. It is unique in that it contains three rendering engines: Gecko , WebKit , and Trident...
, developed by Lunascape Corporation - MaxthonMaxthonMaxthon is a free web browser for Microsoft Windows. The latest release, Maxthon 3, supports both the Trident and the WebKit rendering engines....
, which uses the Trident engine while adding features not built into IE7 - MediaBrowserMediaBrowserMediaBrowser was an Internet browser branding company that started in 2000. They made specially branded versions of Internet Explorer for various company brands and themes. Because the branded web browsers made by MediaBrowser require Internet Explorer 5 or higher it is only supported under...
, customized browsers, especially for NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.... - MenuBoxMenuBoxMenuBox is a web browser developed by Cloanto Corporation. It is based on the Trident layout engine, to which it adds an extended document object model and event intercepts to achieve special functionality for use in contexts such as AutoRun projects, wrapping of web-based services, chromeless...
, a web browser - Microsoft Compiled HTML Help
- Microsoft EncartaEncartaMicrosoft Encarta was a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation from 1993 to 2009. , the complete English version, Encarta Premium, consisted of more than 62,000 articles, numerous photos and illustrations, music clips, videos, interactive contents, timelines, maps and...
and related products - Microsoft InfoPathMicrosoft InfoPathMicrosoft Office InfoPath is a software application for designing, distributing, filling and submitting electronic forms containing structured data...
- Microsoft OutlookMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
which uses Trident to render HTML Messages (prior to Outlook 2007) and the "Outlook Today" screen - Microsoft Outlook ExpressOutlook ExpressOutlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...
, which uses Trident to render HTML Messages - Microsoft Visual InterDevVisual InterDevMicrosoft Visual InterDev, part of Microsoft Visual Studio 97 and 6.0, is an IDE used to create web applications using Microsoft Active Server Pages technologies. It has code completion, database server management tools, and an integrated debugger....
6 uses Trident in editing mode as visual HTML designer - Microsoft Visual Studio 2002-2005 use Trident in editing mode to provide visual ASP.NET/HTML designer
- MSN Messenger, which uses it to produce FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
-based "winks" and games, and for all advertisements shown in the advertisement banner - NeoPlanetNeoPlanetNeoPlanet was a graphical web browser released in 1998 and was based on the Trident rendering engine . It was designed to be a customizable browser with content channels and search facilities, as well as email and download management...
, a web browser - NetCaptorNetCaptorNetCaptor was an Internet Explorer shell that was in development from 1997 to 2005. It used the Trident layout engine of Internet Explorer in conjunction with additional programmed features to create an alternate browsing experience with a tab-based interface and an expanded feature set...
, a web browser - Netscape BrowserNetscape BrowserNetscape Browser is the name of a proprietary Windows web browser published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications. It is the eighth major release in name of the Netscape series of browsers, originally produced by the defunct Netscape Communications Corporation.While Netscape Browser's...
(Netscape 8), which used Trident to render web pages in IE mode - PyjamasPyjamas (software)Pyjamas is a tool and framework for developing Ajax applications in Python. It contains a stand-alone Python-to-JavaScript compiler, an Ajax framework and widget toolkit, and through use of these components, developers can write comprehensive applications, to run in all major web browsers, without...
, a python Widget set Toolkit. Embedding IWebBrowser2 as an Active-X component and accessing the COM interface, Pyjamas uses Trident for the Desktop version, through the python win32 "comtypes" library. - RealNetworksRealNetworksRealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of Internet media delivery software and services based in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is the creator of RealAudio, a compressed audio format; RealVideo, a compressed video format; RealPlayer, a media player; RealDownloader, a download...
- SleipnirSleipnir (web browser)Sleipnir is a tabbed web browser developed by Fenrir Inc. The browser is known for its high level of user customization and is one of the few browsers to still support Windows 98...
, a web browser - SlimBrowserSlimBrowserSlimBrowser is a tabbed multiple-site web browser from FlashPeak that uses the Microsoft Trident layout engine. It incorporates a large collection of features like built-in popup killer, skinned window frame, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and...
, a web browser - SkypeSkypeSkype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, a VoIP software renders HTML data with Trident. - TheWorld Browser, a web browser
- TomeRaiderTomeRaiderTomeRaider is an ebook reader and cross-platform reference viewer for handheld devices devices and Microsoft Windows PC. TomeRaider is created by Yadabyte, a UK software and web development company...
, an ebook reader - Tencent Traveler, a web browser
- ThreeTeeth BrowserThreeTeeth BrowserThe ThreeTeeth Browser is a free web browser based on the Trident rendering engine used in Internet Explorer.The ThreeTeeth Browser is a lightweight single-site browser, designed to be small and lightweight with minimal disk and memory requirements. It was originally known as the Zeta MiniBrowser,...
, a lightweight web browser. - UltraBrowserUltraBrowserUltraBrowser is a graphical web browser developed by UltraBrowser.com Inc, based upon the Trident layout engine, part of Internet Explorer since IE version 4. The program is lightweight and features an advanced GUI which features various links, channels and search facilities. The latest version was...
, a web browser - ValveValve CorporationValve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
's Steam client, previous versions of which used Trident to render the "Store", "Update News" and "Community" sections as well as the Steam in-game browser and MOTD screens in Valve games. The Steam client was recently updated to use WebKitWebKitWebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
instead of Trident for these features. - WebbIEWebbIEWebbIE is a freeware web browser designed for screen reader users. It re-presents web pages as text with a caret, allowing users to use their existing screen reader or assistive technology to read it, but is not self-voicing, unlike Home Page Reader.-History:WebbIE was developed as a student...
, a web browser - Windows Live WriterWindows Live WriterWindows Live Writer, developed by Microsoft, is a desktop blog-publishing application that is part of the Windows Live range of products. It features WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing and map-publishing functionality, and is currently compatible with Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint blogs,...
, which uses Trident for its editor. - Windows Media PlayerWindows Media PlayerWindows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
, which uses Trident to render the "Media Information" pages.
Standards compliance
Although each version of IE has improved standards support, including the introduction of a "standards-compliant mode" in version 6Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 6 is the sixth major revision of Internet Explorer, a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems...
, the core standards that are used to build web pages (HTML and CSS) are sometimes implemented in an incomplete fashion. For example, there was no support for the
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...
CSS 2.1 is fully supported as well as some CSS 3.0 attributes. Internet Explorer 9
Internet Explorer 9
Windows Internet Explorer 9 is the current version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It was released to the public on March 14, 2011 at 21:00 PDT. Internet Explorer 9 supports several CSS 3 properties, embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System, and...
has introduced support for CSS 3, HTML5, and SVG, as well as other modern web standards. This lack of standards compliance has been known to cause rendering bugs and lack of support for modern web technologies, which often increases development time for web pages.
Microsoft alternatives
Apart from Trident, Microsoft also has and uses several other layout engines. One of them, known as TasmanTasman (layout engine)
Tasman was a layout engine developed by Microsoft for inclusion in the Macintosh version of Internet Explorer 5. Tasman was an attempt to improve support for web standards, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium. At the time of its release, Tasman was seen as the layout engine with the best...
, was used in Internet Explorer 5
Internet Explorer 5
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 was a graphical web browser released in March 1999 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but initially with versions available for Apple Macintosh, Sun Solaris, and HP-UX. It was one of the main participants of the first browser war...
for Mac. Development of Internet Explorer for Mac was halted in roughly 2003, but development of Tasman continued to a limited extent, and was later included in Office 2004 for Mac. Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is the most recent version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Mac OS X. It is the successor to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and is comparable to Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows....
uses the open source WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
engine. Microsoft's new web design product, Expression Web
Microsoft Expression Web
Microsoft Expression Web, code-named Quartz, is an HTML editor and general web design software product by Microsoft. It is part of the Expression Studio suite....
as well as Visual Studio 2008 and later do not use Internet Explorer's Trident engine, but rather a different engine.
See also
- List of layout engines
- Comparison of layout enginesComparison of layout enginesThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browser engines. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date...
- Internet Explorer shellInternet Explorer shellAn Internet Explorer shell is any computer software that uses the Trident rendering engine of the Internet Explorer web browser. Although the term "Trident shell" is probably more accurate for describing these applications , the term "Internet Explorer shell", or "IE shell", is in common parlance...