IE Mobile 6 Web Standards in Windows Mobile 6.5

Internet Explorer Mobile 6 (IEMobile 6), bundled with Windows Mobile 6.5 in 2009, represented a major technological shift from previous mobile versions. Built on the desktop Internet Explorer 6 rendering engine (MSHTML) with enhancements ported from IE7 and IE8, the browser aimed to deliver a desktop-fidelity web experience on handheld devices. This article outlines the specific markup, styling, scripting, and protocol standards that IEMobile 6 complied with on Windows Mobile 6.5.

Markup and Document Standards

IEMobile 6 modernized its core document parsing by moving away from simplified mobile layout engines to standard desktop document standards:

  • HTML 4.01: Full support for the HTML 4.01 specification (Transitional and Strict).
  • XHTML: Support for XHTML 1.0 (Transitional and Strict) as well as XHTML 1.1.
  • Mobile-Specific Markup: Maintained backward compatibility for mobile-tailored markup languages, including XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML MP), WML 2.0, and Compact HTML (cHTML).

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

By incorporating the desktop MSHTML layout engine, IEMobile 6 achieved substantial improvements in layout fidelity over its predecessors:

  • CSS 2.1 Compliance: Supported core CSS 2.1 specifications on par with desktop Internet Explorer 6, including standard box model rendering, absolute and relative positioning, float handling, and basic pseudo-classes (such as :hover and :active).
  • CSS Mobile Profile: Supported CSS Mobile Profile 1.0 constructs designed for handheld viewports.
  • Limitations: It inherited desktop IE6 limitations, such as inconsistent box model handling in quirks mode and lack of modern CSS3 properties.

JavaScript and DOM Technologies

IEMobile 6 provided modern client-side scripting capabilities to support dynamic and interactive web applications:

  • ECMAScript / JScript: Included JScript version 5.7, making it compliant with the ECMAScript 3rd Edition standard.
  • Document Object Model (DOM): Provided full support for W3C DOM Level 1 and partial support for W3C DOM Level 2 (Core and HTML modules).
  • AJAX Support: Native implementation of the XMLHttpRequest object, enabling asynchronous data transfer and full support for Web 2.0-style web applications.

Media, Transport, and Security Protocols

Beyond core document rendering, IEMobile 6 integrated standards for multimedia playback, network communication, and secure browsing:

  • Adobe Flash: Integrated support for Adobe Flash Lite 3.1, enabling inline rendering of Flash elements, interactive vector graphics, and standard Web video (H.264/FLV).
  • Network Protocols: Fully compliant with HTTP/1.1, including support for Gzip and Deflate content encoding for reduced data usage.
  • Security Protocols: Implemented standard encryption standards, including SSL 2.0/3.0 and TLS 1.0, with support for standard digital certificates and W3C Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).