[gigel82]

This is a very nice and thorough write-up. Frankly, I would've dropped IE support altogether, that browser has been dead a long long time. No need to futz with gzip and base64, just fetch the wasm, engines optimize for the common path.

[jjkaczor]

IE11 usage will probably tailor off quite dramatically this fall, after Microsoft drops support for it when using their 365 product suite...

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/mi...

[WorldMaker]

I think the bigger sandbag is the single file requirement. I understand why for this type of project and the way it is often deployed by its users that seems like a necessity, but at the same point, we're about to the point that you can assume that ES2015+ browsers also support HTTP/2+, individual file requests are no longer quite the same bottleneck they have been in HTTP/1.x.

In which case you could get away with a "loader" possibly as simple as one <script type="module" src="path/to/modern-lib"></script> and one <script>/* older browser fallback */</script>.

[collinmanderson]

Internet Explorer 11 will probably be around for 25+ years, knowing Microsoft's track record in Windows.

Though I'm surprised the author continued to support IE 10. IE 10 and below are quite dead.

https://www.w3counter.com/trends

https://analytics.usa.gov/

https://analytics.usa.gov/data/live/ie.json

Edit: Amazing to see there's still IE5 usage on US Gov analytics :)

[micrio]

Yeah, I still encounter IE10 and older sometimes -- looking at the wide audiences Micrio projects are used for, this ranges from grandparent's Windows XP machines to OS-locked government IE10-PCs.

Can't be helped, so an automatic fallback to the previous Micrio version is the least I can do.

I do really hope that there could be a _final_ update from MS to IE10 to at least support ES6. That would also make such a big difference.

One can wish..

[devlopr]

That's like dropping support for firefox or edge or safari

Chrome 69.28% Edge 7.75% Firefox 7.48% Internet Explorer 5.21% Safari 3.73% QQ 1.96% Sogou Explorer 1.73% Opera 1.12% Yandex 0.90% UC Browser 0.37%

[hombre_fatal]

IE isn't even in the top 6 in any of the regions you can click on this website: https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/all/europe.

I feel sorry for the people who continue working on IE because they think it's just as important as Edge/Safari/Firefox. :(

[devlopr]

I have it at #4 in the desktop category basically on par with edge / firefox and almost double safari.

https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?options...

[dmt0]

Important or not, if your big corporate customers are willing to pay you big bucks to support it, how can you refuse? But yes, it does feel very counterproductive, and even more so over time, when you see that more and more of the popular libs drop support for ES5.

[forgotmypw17]

Wheelchair users are not even close to 1% of the population. Would you tell a person in a wheelchair to just use their legs when at your establishment?

[forgotmypw17]

It's not dead, it's alive and well on millions of machines still perfectly functional and usable.

There are many developers, and thus services, who are not too lazy to support it. I've been able to achieve compatibility down to IE3, and hoping to go down all the way to 1.0, as a lone developer writing a relatively complex project.

Retro-computing is growing at remarkable rates. But aside from that, there are also people out there using older devices not for the retro-computing cool, but because that's what they have.

Telling them to upgrade is like telling a wheelchair user that they need to upgrade to legs. After all, wheelchair users are probably less than 1% of the population, right?

If I were you, as a developer, I would be just a little bit ashamed and embarrassed of the cop-out attitude displayed in your comment.

[azangru]

> I've been able to achieve compatibility down to IE3, and hoping to go down all the way to 1.0, as a lone developer writing a relatively complex project.

You are perfectly free to spend you time as you see fit; however, you might notice that many projects are dropping support of old browsers. This frees up developer resources, helps with the writing of cleaner code — e.g. CSS grid as opposed to tables or floats; js modules rather than huge js files or complex bundlers; web components instead of imperative handling of all the update logic — and opens up new possibilities in the browser including the webassembly. This is clearly a win for developers; but it also ends up being a win for users.

[wishinghand]

Comparing IE usage to wheelchair users is disingenuous and gross. No one is physically unable to move on from Internet explorer 10. Times change, and standards do too.

[forgotmypw17]

>No one is physically unable to move on from Internet explorer 10.

Please rethink what you wrote here. You made an ableist and ignorant statement.

There are many, many people out there who are trying to access information resources who, for one reason or another, have no control over what browser they are using.

Corporate users. People with older devices they cannot upgrade. People who don't want to upgrade. People using public computers in libraries, shelters, and other assistance centers. People borrowing someone else's device or with a hand-me-down. People with devices they are emotionally attached to for whatever reason. The list goes on and on.

I don't know about you, but as a developer who likes to think of himself as conscientious, as a developer trying to conquer laziness and over-complexity, as a developer who thinks about users and greater good, I'm not going to consciously write all these users off just because Internet Explorer presents some challenges in writing compatible code.

If you are going down that path, please go to the bathroom, if you are privileged enough to access one, and have a long hard look at yourself in the mirror. Is that really the best you can do?

[wishinghand]

You're the one making weird ableist statements. You also list a bunch of types of people who aren't anything like disabled people like corporate users or people who don't want to upgrade.

Your holier than thou attitude really isn't welcome at Hacker News. I would prefer it if you didn't comment at all than see a reply like this. I'm so glad I don't have to work with someone like you.