How Internet Explorer 8 determines the document mode

Microsoft Internet Explorer is still a dominant web browser in many countries, and IE8 is a very common version. Thus, if you are developing web applications, it is important to understand how this browser determines the document mode of the (X)HTML the browser sees.

Recently, Microsoft has published a nice blog entry about the inner workings of this browser version. Of course, in the future, Internet Explorer 9 will support standards better, but it's still months away. Thus, IE8 will for a long time still be one of the most common browser brands and versions available.

Good luck!