I just logged a bug report after doing a little testing with the IE8 Beta. Overall, the progress and standards commitment in the latest effort is fantastic and exciting. Hats off to the Internet Explorer Team.

There's one lingering decision that appears to have carried over though, and it's an important one. I say "decision" since, by now, there clearly must be a reason why it's still there. I'm also reminding myself that this is still a beta release. But the earlier we chime in on things, the better, right?

Here's what I logged:

As with previous versions of Internet Explorer, the IE8 Beta also fails to resize text using the "Text Size" tool when fonts are sized in pixels. Most would consider this a bug, where the user should be able to trump any size specified by the page author, regardless of the unit specified. I remained boggled as to why this has been a consistent design decision.

It creates an accessibility issue for readers with poor or low vision, while making pixels a less than desirable choice for the page designer. In an ideal world, the designer should be able to specify fonts in any unit he or she desires (px, em, percentage, etc.) while the reader should have ultimate control over the size, using the browser's controls. IE's "Text Size" tool would appear to be broken when a reader attempts to adjust fonts on a page where fonts are sized in pixels. Surely confusing.

Thanks for listening, and keep up the excellent progress!

Disagree? I'd love to hear it :)