Reflections on Internet Explorer

I ‘witnessed’ the birth and death of Internet Explorer. It once played an important role in starting real web test automation.

Tombstone of Internet Explorer browser, set up by South Korea’s software engineer Jung Ki-young, is pictured at a rooftop of a cafe in Gyeongju, South Korea, June 17, 2022. Jung Ki-Young/Handout via REUTERS

On 2022–06–15, Internet Explorer died at the age of 27. I started web browsing using Netscape, and I have experienced the whole life span of IE. I have some reflections on this special date.

Table of Contents:
· IE’s OLE made real Web Test Automation Possible
· Background of IE’s success and failure?
  ∘ Browser was not Microsoft’s best interests 
  ∘ Microsoft’s failure to define its own Web Standard
  ∘ C# History: Microsoft attempted the same trick to Java
· Why Microsoft Couldn’t Implement a good Web browser?
· My Reflections on Internet Explorer

IE’s OLE made real Web Test Automation Possible

Prior to 2005, there was no real test automation for websites. Pioneer automated testers did this via simulation, using HTMLUnit library. Internet Explorer, like Microsoft Office apps, has a built-in OLE interface, which can be used to drive the app (I have written code to drive Outlook and Excel before). Watir (stands for Web Application Testing in Ruby) started real test automation by simply connecting the wonderful Ruby Script with IE’s OLE.