Can SuperMemo work without Internet Explorer?

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From: Gian Lorenzo Spisso
Country: Italy
Sent: May 11, 2013
Subject: SuperMemo 15

Question:

I would like to know if the last version of SM supports browser other than IE (Chrome in particular) or if there is any plan to support other browser in the future. Not being able to use SM with the browser of choice maims its usefulness.

Edited on 27/12/2018 by Janosh: In the light of the nearing discontinuation of IE11 support, most likely by 2025 and Microsoft's adoption of the Chromium HTML engine in 2019 for its product Edge, the pressing question remains: What is going to happen to SuperMemo for Windows and its user base? Is there a road map available that establishes when and how the developers think to adapt SuperMemo to the new circumstances?

Hints

  • IE is part of Windows. You can use Chrome with SuperMemo. Not all functions are supported, however, there are workarounds (e.g. instead of Web Import, you can do Copy&Paste).
  • see Less dependent on Internet Explorer

Answer:

You can use SuperMemo efficiently with any browser. However, Internet Explorer is supported natively as a component of MS Windows. This means that some non-essential functionality works best or only with Internet Explorer.

For example, you can easily use Ctrl+Shift+W to import Wikipedia articles from Internet Explorer to SuperMemo. This function will not work in other browsers, however, you can always use Copy and Paste instead (e.g. Ctrl+N in SuperMemo pastes an article from the browser).

Future

The future of SuperMemo will depend primarily on available technical options (incl. Chromium). For example, adoption of Chromium is a new thing as much as the arrival of Edge was new not so long ago. There is only one overriding priority: continuation of the line with minimum disruption. We may try and discard many options on the way. Simplicity and versatility will be important. Universal usability will be important. Availability of all subcomponents in Windows will be important, etc.

NB: supermemo does not depend on IE (only on mshtml.dll used throughout windows)

See also

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