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.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/mi...
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>.
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/data/live/ie.json
Edit: Amazing to see there's still IE5 usage on US Gov analytics :)
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..
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%
I feel sorry for the people who continue working on IE because they think it's just as important as Edge/Safari/Firefox. :(
https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?options...
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.
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.
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?
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.