As we all await the launch of Windows 8, we also are awaiting the launch of Microsoft"s newest version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 10. Today, Microsoft has announced it has submitted a new website standard proposal to the The World Wide Web Consortium that are based on the APIs the company created for Windows 8 and IE 10.
In a new post on the Internet Explorer blog, Microsoft talks about the new standard, which it calls Pointer Events. Microsoft said its proposal is a way to develop websites that can work with a number of different inputs, including the old fashioned mouse and keyboard, along with the more recent pen and touch interfaces.
The blog states:
Our goal with this submission is to work with other browser vendors and the wider Web community to move to adopt a new approach to multi-touch input. In the future, we hope that Web developers will only need to write to one pointer input model no matter if their users are using mouse, pen, touch, or whatever comes next.
Microsoft admits that the Pointer Events standard in its current form "is a starting point and calls out several open issues for discussion." It may take years before the standard is declared official by the W3C.
Source: Internet Explorer blog | Image via Microsoft