Trident (layout engine)
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Trident (also known as MSHTML) is the name of the layout engine for the Microsoft Windows version of Internet Explorer. It was first introduced with the release of Internet Explorer version 4 in October 1997, has been steadily upgraded and remains in use today. For the upcoming version 7 of Internet Explorer, Microsoft is making significant changes to the Trident layout engine to improve compliance with web standards and add support for new technologies. Despite these changes, Trident remains significantly less compliant than competing layout engines Gecko, WebCore, KHTML and Presto.
Trident was designed as a software component to allow software developers to easily add web browsing functionality to their own applications. It presents a COM interface for accessing and editing web pages in any COM-supported environment, like C++ and .NET. For instance, a web browser control can be added to a C++ program and Trident can then be used to access the page currently displayed in the web browser and retrieve element values. Events from the web browser control can also be captured. Trident functionality becomes available by connecting the file mshtml.dll to the software project.
Alternatively, Microsoft also has a layout engine known as Tasman, which is used in Internet Explorer for Mac. Tasman is known for its better standards support. Contrary to popular belief, although development of Internet Explorer for Mac has halted, development of Tasman continues, with its most recent release as part of Office 2004 for Mac.
Versions
- Trident (IE4)
- Trident II (IE5) (improved CSS1.0 support and had sweeping changes in CSS2 rendering)
- Trident III (IE5.5) (corrected issues with CSS handling)
- Trident IV (IE6) (corrected the box-model and added "Quirks Mode" with DTD switching)
- Trident V (IE7) (Due out in Beta form along with IE7, this is planned to fix many CSS rendering issues and add PNG alpha support)
Trident-based applications
Internet Explorer 4.0 and onwards uses Trident. Many other web browsers use it: see Internet Explorer shells.
- Windows Explorer in all versions of Windows from Windows 98 up until Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Windows Vista will use a different engine for Explorer.
- Windows Help in all versions of Windows from Windows 98 onwards.
- RealPlayer's web view.
- RealArcade
- MSN Explorer
- Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express use Trident to render HTML Messages and the "Outlook Today" screen
- Microsoft's Encarta and related products
- Microsoft's Windows Media Player uses Trident to render the "Media Information" pages
- FeedReader
- Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
- MSN Messenger uses it to produce the flash-based winks and games and for all advertisements shown in the advertisement banner.
- ThunderSite Web Editor
- TomeRaider
- Valve's Steam software uses Trident to render the "Store" and "Update News" sections
See also
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