Dev Connection

Ed Burnette

Opera aces Acid3 (updated)

By Ed Burnette | March 26, 2008, 9:00pm PDT

The Opera browser today became the first browser to pass the Acid3 test. On the Opera desktop team blog, Lars Erik Bolstad writes:

I have a quick update on where we are with Acid3. Since the test was officially announced recently, our Core developers have been hard at work fixing bugs and adding the missing standards support. Today we reached a 100% pass rate for the first time! There are some remaining issues yet to be fixed, but we hope to have those sorted out shortly.

Opera aces Acid3

Bolstad continues:

We will release a technical preview version on labs.opera.com within the next week or so. For now, the screenshot above shows the Acid3 test as rendered in our latest WinGogi Desktop build. WinGogi is the Windows version of our reference builds used for the internal testing of Opera’s platform independent Core.

So there you have it. 23 days after the test was released, Opera is the first to cross the finish line, at least in an internal build. The rest of us will have to wait a few days before we can verify the results, but this is exciting. Now it’s a race between Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Microsoft IE to see who will come in second. Place yer bets…

Update: That didn’t take long. At almost the same time as the Opera announcement, the Safari Webkit team announced that they had also passed the test. Unlike Opera, the version that passed is available for immediate download.

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Topics

Opera Software, Bolstad, WinGogi, Web Browsers, Team Management, Desktops, Internet, Management, Hardware, Ed Burnette

Ed Burnette is a software industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience as a programmer, author, and speaker. He has written numerous technical articles and books, most recently "Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform" from the Pragmatic Programmers.

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As expected

John Musbach 1st Apr 2008

I noticed that Safari and Opera had the best pass rate of the bunch so it's no surprise that they're also the first out with fully compliant browsers, the only question I have now is when Firefox will (hopefully) become compliant.

- John Musbach

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Read Carefully

Stoutner 26th Mar 2008

The text at the bottom of the Acid 3
test states, "To pass the test, a
browser must use its default
settings, the animation has to be
smooth, the score has to end on
100/100, and the final page has to
look exactly, pixel for pixel, like
this reference rendering." The text
from the Opera announcement
reads, "Today we reached a 100% pass
rate for the first time! There are
some remaining issues yet to be
fixed, but we hope to have those
sorted out shortly." Most likely,
those issues relate to the animation
not being smooth during the test. If
such is the case, they haven't
yet "aced" the test. But they are
close and probably will ace it soon.

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RE: Opera aces Acid3

woot@... 26th Mar 2008

Opera now fails Acid3 as a bug was found in one of the tests.

http://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1206578003&count=1

WebKit now gets the award of getting 100/100 first happy

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Point?

srobtjones@... 27th Mar 2008

For me, I started using Opera as a protest to M$'s unfair use of their browser to dominate the PC market and kill competition. I did not care about its speed or other technical abilities as much as I wanted one or more alternatives to IE.

Many people started using Opera for similar reasons. The fact that Opera is so fast and robust is a boon to those who are accustomed to IE's lackluster performance and poor security history.

So Opera passed/came close to passing some test. Big deal. 5th graders pass tests every day.

It doesn't have to be the fastest or first to pass some ever-changing examination. It simply has to work well, and be one of many options which work on my computer.

I refuse to allow any one company to dominate my computing options. That is one reason why I have Opera, Firefox, and Safari on my Windoze, MAc, and Linux boxes. Until recently, I also had Flock, but it locked up too much for my taste.

I am glad that Opera did well, though. That only serves to reaffirm my experience with it within my test environment: every work and personal computing. After all, that's the test that REALLY matters.

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Contributr

Standards are the point

Ed Burnette 27th Mar 2008

The point of Acid3 and similar tests is to see how closely browsers from different vendors conform to standards and to each other. If all browsers were 100% compatible then it would simplify web development, increase the functionality that can be assumed by web applications, streamline the user's experience, and hasten the browser's dominance over the traditional desktop paradigm.

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Standards are the Point?

rkuhn040172@... 27th Mar 2008

Really.

That's funny, since most websites aren't built according to standards.

This whole thing is a joke. Someone came out with standards that no one follows then they come out with a test for those standards and throw a party when someone passes it.

This whole thing remains me of high school/college graduates. They test out well and pass all their tests in order to graduate and when they finally make it into the real world, they find out that all that education and testing they did, didn't mean crap.

They still don't have marketable real world skills. At least the skills that only experience can teach.

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Yes, standards are the point!

maroneill@... 31st Mar 2008

"most websites aren't built according to standards"
Exactly! But if the makers of browsers start to make the effort to conform to standards, then web developers will need only to build the websites according to the standards. As it stands, most web sites (,except for those maintained ignorantly to accept only IE,) confrom to standards in part of the code and in another part cater for people who are using IE. If the most popular browsers conform in the way they decode the page, it will mean less headaches for website designers and more time to spend on improving the content and less code to download to view each page too.
Do you understand why this matters now? Besides, who is it exactly that "throw a party"? Opera announced it because it's in their interest; ZDnet reported on it.
The rant about college students is ignorant in a different way. I feel a little sorry for you that you can't appreciate the benefit of a good education

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Laughable

rkuhn@... 31st Mar 2008

Chicken and egg isn't it.

You expect browsers to conform to a standard that no websites follow so that one day they will? Chicken

If websites followed the standard, then wouldn't the browsers follow? Egg

Why is it ignorant to build a website the predominately only accepts IE if you know in advanced that predominately all of your users use IE?

As for education, I'd be will to bet I have more than you and I do appreciate the value in it. However, our schools are failing our children everyday but 1) not teaching them a damn thing and/or 2) teaching them meaningless and worthless material that is virtually useless later in life.

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Agreed

Yessongs 27th Mar 2008

I have been using Opera since version 3.xx For me, and I do use all of the browsers you mentioned, Opera is simply the best. Peiod. I won't stop using it if they don't pass the test.

Dan

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Exactly

HawkCW4@... 27th Mar 2008

Finally, a down to earth, realistic and honest look at just a tool we use every day. God forbid this or that browser can render a page .3 sec faster. Well said my friend..

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My understanding is that

frgough 27th Mar 2008

the nightly webkit build also passes acid 3. As of yesterday.

Looks like a photo finish.

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The build of Opera..

msalzberg 27th Mar 2008

that passed is not publicly available, as I understand it. The
build of WebKit that passed is.

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Opera - and Webkit - ace Acid3 !

mhenriday 27th Mar 2008

Congratulations to both of them, but I'll be even more impressed when these browsers are released to the general public as ordinary products. May one entertain hopes for Firefox 3 in this context ?...

Henri

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No, firefox won't pass yet

Mitch 74 27th Mar 2008

Acid3 was released when Firefox 3 had entered beta - meaning that the trink had been locked down against deep modifications.

Still, the guys at Mozilla fixed those bugs that were within easy reach, and improved Firefox 3's mark by a dozen points.

All tests thare are not passed by Mozilla have been noted. Most depend on missing CSS3 and advanced SVG features. As a reminder,

- Firefox was one of the first browsers to offer meaningful, and core integration of, SVG. Currently Mozilla's implementation covers SVG Tiny, and most of SVG 1.1 Full natively. Acid3 requires SVG 1.2.

- CSS3 Proposed Recommendation was ratified a few months ago. After being the first browser to implement CSS3 features found in earlier drafts, most recent options in CSS3 Recommendation differ enough from Mozilla's implementation that they require some careful attention to be done just right (some were added to Firefox 3 early on, some easy ones may just make it into the final product due to the patches being ready, well tested and documented).

- at the time Acid3 was released, Firefox 2's results were the highest available amongst released browsers.

- citing Webkit's developers, Acid3 noncompliance doens't mean a browser is crap: it just means that the test targets areas known to be buggy and/or incomplete. Specifically, the test strikes where it hurts. In fact, when Acid3 came out, most relased browsers passed more tests that expected (each awarded point means a series of tests was passed successfully; the Acid3 test doesn't cover a hundred features, but more like a thousand).

Right now, the only browser to be shamed by Acid3 is Internet Explorer. It is also the only mainstream browser in development not to pass the 20/100 bar - and to have a completely messed up rendering (all others render the bars and 'page' correctly; IE8b1 doesn't).

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RE: Opera aces Acid3

jimbo@... 27th Mar 2008

Good. I have used Opera for years. For my part, no other browser even comes close.

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Moz Firefox

rebelxhardcore 27th Mar 2008

When Mozilla Firefox is done, it will pass the Acid3 test, and I know this because Mozilla is real good at making sure the browser they release is secure and most of all works all web standards..

Firefox 2 is one bad version. But there's more to come in Firefox 3... It looks promising.

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Contributr

Firefox will pass it someday

Ed Burnette 28th Mar 2008

Firefox, and even some future version of Internet Explorer, will pass the test sooner or later. Even though it's not a "standard" itself, it does give browser developers another tool they can use to evaluate how closely they conform to standards (whether real or de-facto).

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Opera least stable on Vista

Jim Johnson 28th Mar 2008

On my Vista Ultimate SP1 system I have the latest FireFox and Opera (and of course IE7). I really like Opera but it has consistently crashed more than the other two browsers. And if I restart it by opening the last session, it will immediately crash again. If I restart from scratch, it will crash when I again open whichever page caused it to crash before. It doesn't matter whether I tell Opera to emulate itself or another browser.

So while it is obviously an issue with specific pages, the browser itself shouldn't be crashing. I have hoped with each update that this will be fixed.

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Have you reported this issue to Opera?

nilotpal_c 28th Mar 2008

I think that would be the thing to do if you are to get an update. Another thing I found was that browser crashes are not necessarily the fault of browsers. For example, I have serious issues with Opera Flash plug-in in Mandriva while browsing ZDNet but none whatsoever in Ubuntu. Sometimes, there are unique configuration differences that causes one software to perform well or badly on a particular system.

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RE: Opera aces Acid3

What the ...! 31st Mar 2008

Great, now if only web sites would follow a standard... The state of Illinois Dept. of Employment Security (unemployment insurance) works for IE only.