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JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

blog.jquery.com

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Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#71

Post by trafficlight »

jlarocco wrote: post #69
tambourine_man wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time, the pace of the cutting edge grows faster and faster. It better grow pretty fast. By late 2012, jQuery will still be supporting a browser released in 2001 but by early 2013 it won't support a browser that was only replaced by MS in 2011. Corporate America is not IE8's only domain. There are a lot of people who don't even know what a browser is. And IE8 was the default browser on Windows 7.

You know what? At this point I'm not sure it's worth catering to people who "don't even know what a browser is." They've had nearly 20 years to hop on the bandwagon and start understanding this crazy "internet" thing, and they haven't. A person that behind the times isn't going to buy anything on the internet anyway.

I can't imagine the internet is very useful or fun for those people either. Every other site must be broken in some way. And that's still not enough for them to ask someone about it.

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#72

Post by mgkimsal »

jlarocco wrote: post #69
tambourine_man wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time, the pace of the cutting edge grows faster and faster. It better grow pretty fast. By late 2012, jQuery will still be supporting a browser released in 2001 but by early 2013 it won't support a browser that was only replaced by MS in 2011. Corporate America is not IE8's only domain. There are a lot of people who don't even know what a browser is. And IE8 was the default browser on Windows 7.

You know what? At this point I'm not sure it's worth catering to people who "don't even know what a browser is." They've had nearly 20 years to hop on the bandwagon and start understanding this crazy "internet" thing, and they haven't. A person that behind the times isn't going to buy anything on the internet anyway.

it's not always just about buying. having information accessible to people is... generally... a good goal to have.

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#73

Post by 46Bit »

tambourine_man wrote: post #60
wycats wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cycle here is pretty long: jQuery 2.0 will be released in "Early 2013". For some time (probably at least 6 months if not longer), jQuery 1.9 and 2.x will be perfectly API compatible. That means that the conditional comment approach will work with very little downside. That gets us to summer or Fall 2013. At this point, there may be a release of jQuery 2.1. According to the blog post, it will probably contain few…

At the same time, the pace of the cutting edge grows faster and faster. It better grow pretty fast. By late 2012, jQuery will still be supporting a browser released in 2001 but by early 2013 it won't support a browser that was only replaced by MS in 2011. Corporate America is not IE8's only domain. There are a lot of people who don't even know what a browser is. And IE8 was the default browser on Windows 7.

You're comparing apples to oranges. A more correct assertion: By late 2012, jQuery will still be supporting a browser replaced by MS in 2006 but by early 2013 it won't support a browser that was only replaced by MS in 2011.

It's still a valid point, but comparing release dates with replacement dates just hurts the whole argument.

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#74

Post by mgkimsal »

barryfandango wrote: post #65
zanny wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the magic: IE 6 - 8 are not popular browsers. They are only used if the person using them doesn't know what a browser is. And all it would take for them to switch is one webpage they use popping up "You are using an outdated unsupported vulnerable awful browser, here are Firefox or Chrome, take your pick and don't ruin your web experience any more". And the corporate clients could finally get through their he…

Unfortunately it's not a matter of sticking fingers in your ears, I can tell you. If you've got 50-100,000 workstations to worry about, and a couple of intranet apps that only run in older versions (there are more of these than you might think,) upgrading IE could be a fabulously large and expensive project. Still you gotta catch up at some point. The product I work on is dropping IE8 in January, which will cause som…

"If you've got 50-100,000 workstations to worry about, and a couple of intranet apps that only run in older versions (there are more of these than you might think,) upgrading IE could be a fabulously large and expensive project."

So... don't upgrade IE, but give people the option of - you know - running another browser. The IT folks can even lock it down so no one can do anything useful with it, but they could give people firefox, chrome, safari or opera as another tool on their desktop.

Holding back an entire company's ability to do any modern browsing because you're still tied to one HR intranet app from 2003 is just silly. There's no sane argument to be made for it, in light of the short- and long-term opportunity costs it imposes.

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#75

Post by eli »

jlarocco wrote: post #69
tambourine_man wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time, the pace of the cutting edge grows faster and faster. It better grow pretty fast. By late 2012, jQuery will still be supporting a browser released in 2001 but by early 2013 it won't support a browser that was only replaced by MS in 2011. Corporate America is not IE8's only domain. There are a lot of people who don't even know what a browser is. And IE8 was the default browser on Windows 7.

You know what? At this point I'm not sure it's worth catering to people who "don't even know what a browser is." They've had nearly 20 years to hop on the bandwagon and start understanding this crazy "internet" thing, and they haven't. A person that behind the times isn't going to buy anything on the internet anyway.

That works fine for your blog, but what percentage of customers are you willing to turn away from your web business?

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#77

Post by eli »

anthonyb wrote: post #63
tambourine_man wrote: post #18

Sorry, but this is a disaster. Dropping support for IE6 may be OK, IE7 is a bit too soon, but IE8? I haven't tested my stuff on IE6 and IE7 for a long time, but I still do it on IE8 everyday. It was released in 2009! And it's decent enough, PNG transparencies, etc. jQuery's main raison d'être might have gone out the window.

> IE7 is a bit too soon, but IE8?... It was released in 2009! That's old! When JQuery 1.9 is released in 2013 it'll be four years old. Windows XP is eleven years old and will be end of lifed in early 2014. At what point will you pull the pin? I think this is a good roadmap for phasing out Old IE support. It's not like they're yanking the rug out from under you - 1.9.x will be around for a while yet.

You realize IE8 is the default browser that shipped with Windows 7, right?

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#78

Post by Silhouette »

ams6110 wrote: post #12
seldo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem a strange decision. They even address it in their post: "jQuery was conceived specifically to address the differences in browsers, so we’re not going to abandon the essence of our philosophy and simply disregard the millions [still using] oldIE. Yet we also want to move ahead and take advantage of modern browsers, especially the growing mobile market." The whole point of jQuery is that it's supposed to a…

I think they just realized they can continue to support the old IE versions while other JS libraries advance in functionality, or they can stay competitive.

Which other libraries would those be? (I'm serious.)

There were several fairly well known libraries a couple of years ago, but as far as I can tell, jQuery won that battle decisively. It has almost 100% penetration in the projects I'm familiar with that use a general purpose JS library, and it seems to be the default for articles and blog posts I find on-line these days too.

Part of that success came from the ecosystem reaching critical mass. Many people know jQuery. Many plug-ins are available for jQuery. And the vast installed base usually means quick bug fixes even for recent browser compatibility problems.

If there is something out there that is better by a wide enough margin to justify giving up that established ecosystem, I'd love to hear about it. The ecosystem has plenty of imperfections, but I haven't come across anything yet that seems nearly comprehensive enough to displace the incumbent here.

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#79

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Silhouette wrote: post #78
ams6110 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they just realized they can continue to support the old IE versions while other JS libraries advance in functionality, or they can stay competitive.

Which other libraries would those be? (I'm serious.) There were several fairly well known libraries a couple of years ago, but as far as I can tell, jQuery won that battle decisively. It has almost 100% penetration in the projects I'm familiar with that use a general purpose JS library, and it seems to be the default for articles and blog posts I find on-line these days too. Part of that success came from the ecosyst…

The JS community has moved beyond DOM abstraction libraries entirely. Using polyfills is now the preferred way to reach older browsers. JQuery serves a role of abstracting the stuff that polyfills can't fix, or to go all the way back to IE6 where the differences are too great to mess with on your own. Without that, there really is no reason to use JQuery at all.

Re: JQuery 2.0 Drops Support for IE6/7/8; API-Compatible with jQuery 1.9.

#80

Post by tambourine_man »

jlarocco wrote: post #69
tambourine_man wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time, the pace of the cutting edge grows faster and faster. It better grow pretty fast. By late 2012, jQuery will still be supporting a browser released in 2001 but by early 2013 it won't support a browser that was only replaced by MS in 2011. Corporate America is not IE8's only domain. There are a lot of people who don't even know what a browser is. And IE8 was the default browser on Windows 7.

You know what? At this point I'm not sure it's worth catering to people who "don't even know what a browser is." They've had nearly 20 years to hop on the bandwagon and start understanding this crazy "internet" thing, and they haven't. A person that behind the times isn't going to buy anything on the internet anyway.

A person that behind the times isn't going to buy anything on the internet anyway

I just had my largest ever budget approved by someone who uses IE8 at home in 1024x768 resolution. Not that this proves anything, but only goes to show that money is not always where you think it is.

Besides, visitors may interest you in ways other than making a sell.

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