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by ruricolist 4134 days ago
Why browser compatibility? Why polyfills?

I don't understand the logic that goes from "Modern browsers with fast JS engines make fancy web apps practical" to "let's make sure our fancy web apps run in old browsers with slow JS engines."
1 comments
admyral 4134 days ago
The original commenter asserts the DOM feels slow because we use bloated frameworks rather than pure JS. Sure, you certainly can use pure JS to target a select few modern browsers, but I've yet to see a practical story on how to build apps for the rest of the web at large this way.

Are we saying in order to go fast, we should eschew the progress we've made in compatibility to accomplish it?

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ruricolist 4134 days ago
In some cases, yes.

If you are committed to doing everything in JS, then you have two choices:

1. Deliver a degraded experience to modern browsers and a terrible experience to older browsers.

2. Deliver a good experience to modern browsers and no experience at all to older browsers.

Depending on your business model, #1 may be the best choice. But if you're trying to compete with native apps then #2 is the only thing that makes sense.

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