Introduction

Updated: September 18, 1998

There are a number of interesting sites and specifications on the Web maintained by various Internet organizations. We've listed key resources below. (These links are also available from the contents pane; click "Show Contents" above to display it.) This area also provides standards documents that are relevant to Microsoft® products, including drafts of specifications for new technologies.

Microsoft is committed to working with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to implement W3C-approved HTML standards, and has confirmed its pledge to work through W3C and other standards bodies on enhancements to HTML and other key Web technologies.

Before you explore the links below, you'll want to read Standard Bearers: How the W3C Sets Benchmarks for the Web, which explains who sets standards for the World Wide Web, what the best known standards are, and where to find more detailed information about them.

(Please note that the links marked with below point to servers that are not under Microsoft's control. See Microsoft's official statement regarding other servers.)

Specs from Microsoft
Standards supported by Internet Explorer:
   Recommendations
   Working Drafts
   Proposals
About the organizations

Specs from Microsoft

Timed Interactive Multimedia Extensions for HTML (HTML+TIME) proposal
The HTML+TIME proposal defines a set of extensions that add timing, interaction, and media delivery capabilities to HTML. It allows developers to build interactive multimedia presentations as an integrated part of their HTML pages for rendering in todays Web browsers. HTML+TIME is based on open standards such as HTML 4.0, CSS 2.0, ECMAScript, XML 1.0, and Namespaces. Microsoft expects to co-submit the HTML+TIME proposal to a standards body with leading industry companies.
Channel Definition Format (CDF) spec
The CDF specification, which Microsoft has submitted to the W3C, permits a Web publisher to offer automatic delivery of information (called channels) from any Web server to Web users. The CDF standard submission is an application of XML work that the W3C has in progress. See the Content & Component Delivery section of the SBN Workshop for more information on channels.
Open Software Description (OSD) spec
The OSD specification, which Microsoft and Marimba, Inc. co-authored and submitted to the W3C, is based on XML and provides a standard way to describe software components and applications. OSD will help automate software distribution over the Internet and reduce the total cost of PC ownership for corporations. See the Active Desktop & Channels section of the SBN Workshop for more information on OSD.
Proposal for Extensible Style Language (XSL)
The Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is an important member of the XML family. It is designed for formatting XML data and documents on the Web, providing functionality beyond Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). See the XSL pages in the SBN Workshop for additional information.
XML-Data spec
The XML-Data specification is an initial proposal for a specification for exchanging structured and networked data on the Web. For additional information on XML, be sure to visit the XML section of the SBN Workshop.

Standards Supported by Internet Explorer

The following list of HTML and CSS-related drafts, recommendations, and proposals are supported by Internet Explorer. For a comprehensive list of the latest HTML tags supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer, see the DHTML, HTML & CSS section of the SBN Workshop.

Recommendations

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS1) -- Level 1 of the Cascading Style Sheets mechanism, which allows authors to attach style sheets that control fonts, colors, and spacing to HTML documents.
Cascading Style Sheets 2.0
Announced as a W3C Recommendation on May 12, 1998, this is an extension of CSS 1.0. It consolidates specifications for printing properties and media dependency, font properties, absolute and relative positioning of HTML elements, and control over aural representation of content. It adds new features for control over table formatting, bi-directional text handling, numbering properties, text shadowing, and integration with the user's operating system. CSS2 properties supported in Internet Explorer 4.0 include positioning, downloadable fonts, page-breaking for printing, media-dependent style sheets, system fonts and colors, and cursor control.
ECMAScript -- This specification released by the ECMA standards organization describes a general-purpose, cross-platform programming language. The originating technology for the ECMA Standard is JavaScript version 1.1.
XML -- XML is a simplified subset of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language, ISO 8879), specifically designed for Web applications. For more information on XML, including XML parsers you can use, see the Microsoft XML Web site.
HTML 3.2 -- This specification adds support for tables, applets, and text flow around images, while providing backwards-compatibility with HTML 2.0.
HTML 4.0 spec (replaces Project Cougar) -- Extends HTML 3.2 with enhanced support for scripting, style sheets, multimedia options, and internationalization; and improved access to HTML features for people with disabilities.
Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) -- Describes a scheme for rating content on the World Wide Web that has been endorsed by Microsoft. For more information, see the information about RSACi and PICS rating services .
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) -- Describes PNG, a file format that replaces GIF and supports lossless, portable, well-compressed storage of raster images as well as indexed color, grayscale, and true-color images.

Working Drafts

Namespaces in XML
Working draft published by the W3C that describes a simple method for qualifying certain names used in XML documents by associating them with namespaces, identified by URI. For additional information on XML, be sure to visit the Microsoft XML Web site.
Positioning HTML Elements with Cascading Style Sheets -- Extends CSS to support the positioning (both relative and absolute) and visibility of HTML elements in 3-D space.
HTML DOM Working Draft -- The purpose of this working draft is to specify an API for how Web builders and developers can access the Document Object Model to manipulate page elements and create dynamic effects. The draft states that the DOM should represent every HTML element as an object and every attribute as a property. This is fully consistent with Microsoft's implementation of the DOM in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.
Web Fonts -- Extends the font mechanisms in CSS1 to permit improved client-side matching of fonts, enable font synthesis and progressive rendering, and enable fonts to be downloaded over the Web. Microsoft, Adobe, and Agfa have all announced support for this font-embedding technology draft. For more information, see the Font Embedding on the Web page on the Microsoft Typography site.
Personal Information Exchange spec (PKCS 12) -- The PFX standard describes a transfer syntax and protocols for personal identity information, including private keys, certificates, miscellaneous secrets, and extensions. It describes secure protocols for exchanging this information among multiple platforms.

Proposals

HTML Extensions for Data Binding (under review)
Channel Definition Format (under review). See the Channel Definition Format (CDF) spec on this site for Microsoft's submission to the W3C.
XML Web Collections (under review)

About the Organizations

The World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org/ ) The World Wide Web Consortium (more commonly known as "W3C") works with the global community to produce specifications and reference software for the World Wide Web. Among other things, it publishes specifications for HTML, HTTP, CGI, and other Web technologies.
ECMA (http://www.ecma.ch/ ) ECMA is an international, Europe-based industry organization founded in 1961 and dedicated to the standardization of information and communication systems.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/ ) The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) publishes specifications on Internet protocols such at TCP/IP. Its many specifications and RFC (Request for Comment) documents are available via ftp at ftp://ds.internic.net/std/ and ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/ . You can review the index.txt file in each of these directories to find a specific spec.
The Internet Society (http://info.isoc.org/ ) The Internet Society is a non-governmental international organization for Internet technologies and applications. It provides Internet statistics, market research, public information, and historical materials.