Comment by wux | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wux | Hacker News Reader

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This looked like a pretty long list of unsupported APIs, so I decided to do some research:

- CSS motion path is not an official standard; it is implemented only in Blink (Chrome/Opera).

- CSS device adaptation is a W3C working draft. It is available prefixed in IE/Edge and Opera Mini, but is unprefixed in 0% of shipping browsers.

- Client Hints: DPR, Width, Viewport-Width is an IETF working draft implemented only in Blink (Chrome/Opera).

- inputmode is supported in 0% of shipping browsers.

- MediaRecorder API is a W3C working draft supported in Blink (Chrome/Opera) and Firefox but not IE/Edge or Safari.

- Network Information API is not an official standard; it is supported only in Chrome for Android.

(Source: caniuse.com)

I stopped going through the list at this point. At least from the top of your list, none of these features are "shipped in every other browser" and some are shipped in no browsers at all. I'm not sure how it shows that Safari is "far behind the times."

If anything, the list seems to show that Chrome implements many non-standard APIs not available elsewhere. Combined with its mindshare (if not marketshare), this suggests that Chrome--not Safari--is in some ways the new IE6.

This is exactly what tons of WebKit/Safari haters do — troll through the literally 100s of proposed standards (admittedly sometimes W3C but still) and rile up comment sections w/this false trope astroturfing for half-baked technologies.

It's usually because they had some pet project / approach relying on the "standard" that they couldn't run right in MobileSafari, even though it had no adoption whatsoever, Cupertino is DESTROYING the web for not including it, battery life, privacy, reasonable userspace restrictions, etc BE DAMNED.

Don't believe it.

I'd edit my post to remove the items that aren't standard or even working drafts yet, but unfortunately the time window has passed so I can't now.

But I can't agree that Chrome is in any way the new IE6. Chrome is actively participating in the public view in the process of web standards. Apple seems to 'participate' insofar as they are on lists of participating companies. Apple pretty much adds just one batch of features per year, and does so through a completely opaque process that outside developers are almost completely irrelevant to. Chrome at least listens to outside opinions, while one of the defining traits of the IE6 years was having to work under the umbrella of a "we don't care, just use what we gave you" attitude from the IE6 developers.

Also, the fact I had to open chrome in order to post this comment to HN is an amusing addition to this little "how broken is the web" discussion.

I suspect the reason gp included the IE6 comparison at all was in response to yours, after looking into ES6 support across browsers for features you specifically called out, which I think is fair to do.

As for opening Chrome to post your comment, are you having issues with other browsers when you do so? I generally use Safari in Mac OS X and iOS without a problem.

Web Developers use common lowest denominator with is IE8-IE9 for public facing projects and IE11 for internal...

Your Safari will work just fine, but it is still behind Firefox or Chrome [0]. I am not saying that Safari is new IE because we will struggle with IE11 for years to come.

Before Safari 10 ES6 was supported in 54% then in Safari 10 is 100%. This is wrong approach to web, it is the same approach that MS had in the past. Ignore standards and make some improvement with new version for bragging rights.

[0] https://nolanlawson.com/2015/06/30/safari-is-the-new-ie/

ggp: Also, the fact I had to open chrome in order to post this comment to HN is an amusing addition to this little "how broken is the web" discussion.

gp: As for opening Chrome to post your comment, are you having issues with other browsers when you do so? I generally use Safari in Mac OS X and iOS without a problem.

My comment on using Safari is in response to ggp saying Chrome was necessary to post to HN, not about general use or for development. Or am I misreading ggp?

> Before Safari 10 ES6 was supported in 54% then in Safari 10 is 100%. This is wrong approach to web, it is the same approach that MS had in the past. Ignore standards and make some improvement with new version for bragging rights.

How is implementing some of a standard, and then completing work to implement 100% of that standard "ignoring standards"?

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