5 ms·

Polyfills as a Service

67 points by grflynn 11y ago

willeh 11y ago
Getting an Internal Server Error at https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/polyfills/polyfill.js https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/polyfills/polyfill.js
jrochkind1 11y ago
> To include polyfills, use a -, otherwise, use a +. That should say 'exclude', right? To avoid confusion, probably avoid "otherwise" too, spell it out "to exclude polyfills use a `-`; to include only listed polyfills use a `+`"
cvburgess 11y ago
This is a really neat idea... when paired with the Express middleware and Babel, you could have a pretty clean ES6 app with modern browser features and still have it work on older browsers.
- merb 11y ago
  You don't need this if you write your app with babel. it will automatically add polyfills if needed.
  - philipwalton 11y ago
    No, the point of this tool is that some browsers require a polyfill, and some don't because the feature is natively supported. A transpiler like Babel cannot possibly determine that, so it has to be safe and include polyfills for all features used in the code it's transpiling, reglardless of whether or not the browser you're using already supports the feature. A good example of this is Promises, which are supported in many modern browsers, but not all.
    - Confiks 11y ago
      Yet this is exactly what babel-runtime will do for you: include all the polyfills. If you're not targetting IE8 and you don't care about Intl won't actually be that much code. If you're using webpack you can use the code splitting feature to make sure the browser doesn't download that extra few KBs (which is presumable a trade-off between (an) extra roundtrip(s), so maybe you should just swallow those KBs).
tyho 11y ago
This is a really great example of why not to use random CDN's just because it is convenient. Currently they are just serving internal server errors.
- jimaek 11y ago
  The problem is their origin not the CDN itself. The author is not responding and wont fix the server
- revmoo 11y ago
  Yeah and that's like the least worst thing that can happen. JS CDNs are a bad idea.
jongleberry 11y ago
Author here. Haven't maintained this in a while. It's down due to some breaking changes in libraries and I haven't updated the code to handle it. I also stopped using this as you could just use babel to automatically use whichever polyfill you use with babel-runtime. Saving a few kb is an overoptimization. If you're interested in maintaining this project, let me know. I can add you to the GitHub organization.
- doomspork 11y ago
  Would be nice to have a note on the homepage indicating that this project has since been abandoned.
  - jongleberry 11y ago
    will do
rcsorensen 11y ago
If this interests you, there is also https://cdn.polyfill.io/v1/docs/ https://cdn.polyfill.io/v1/docs/ (https://github.com/Financial-Times/polyfill-service https://github.com/Financial-Times/polyfill-service), backed by FT.
- Confiks 11y ago
  If you're using Webpack there is also a great and simple loader module here: https://github.com/deepsweet/autopolyfiller-loader https://github.com/deepsweet/autopolyfiller-loader Works like a charm
pan_w 11y ago
CDNs beats packages for faster page loads, but there must be a reliable maintainer. This was paramount as I was building SaturnAPI. If anyone needs to utilize MATLAB in the cloud check it out: https://SaturnAPI.com https://SaturnAPI.com
jheriko 11y ago
as a low level developer all of this confuses me. polyfills as a thing at all, multiple solutions and a service that can provide them (but doesn't actually work!) this is why web development makes me feel bad... all this time an effort spent solve very easily and classically well solved problems in the browser, because browsers are wastelands of terrible engineering :I

67 points by grflynn 11y ago

Getting an Internal Server Error at https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/polyfills/polyfill.js https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/polyfills/polyfill.js

jrochkind1 11y ago

> To include polyfills, use a -, otherwise, use a +. That should say 'exclude', right? To avoid confusion, probably avoid "otherwise" too, spell it out "to exclude polyfills use a `-`; to include only listed polyfills use a `+`"

cvburgess 11y ago

This is a really neat idea... when paired with the Express middleware and Babel, you could have a pretty clean ES6 app with modern browser features and still have it work on older browsers.

merb 11y ago
You don't need this if you write your app with babel. it will automatically add polyfills if needed.
- philipwalton 11y ago
  No, the point of this tool is that some browsers require a polyfill, and some don't because the feature is natively supported. A transpiler like Babel cannot possibly determine that, so it has to be safe and include polyfills for all features used in the code it's transpiling, reglardless of whether or not the browser you're using already supports the feature. A good example of this is Promises, which are supported in many modern browsers, but not all.
  - Confiks 11y ago
    Yet this is exactly what babel-runtime will do for you: include all the polyfills. If you're not targetting IE8 and you don't care about Intl won't actually be that much code. If you're using webpack you can use the code splitting feature to make sure the browser doesn't download that extra few KBs (which is presumable a trade-off between (an) extra roundtrip(s), so maybe you should just swallow those KBs).

tyho 11y ago

This is a really great example of why not to use random CDN's just because it is convenient. Currently they are just serving internal server errors.

jimaek 11y ago
The problem is their origin not the CDN itself. The author is not responding and wont fix the server
revmoo 11y ago
Yeah and that's like the least worst thing that can happen. JS CDNs are a bad idea.

jongleberry 11y ago

Author here. Haven't maintained this in a while. It's down due to some breaking changes in libraries and I haven't updated the code to handle it. I also stopped using this as you could just use babel to automatically use whichever polyfill you use with babel-runtime. Saving a few kb is an overoptimization. If you're interested in maintaining this project, let me know. I can add you to the GitHub organization.

doomspork 11y ago
Would be nice to have a note on the homepage indicating that this project has since been abandoned.
- jongleberry 11y ago
  will do

rcsorensen 11y ago

If this interests you, there is also https://cdn.polyfill.io/v1/docs/ https://cdn.polyfill.io/v1/docs/ (https://github.com/Financial-Times/polyfill-service https://github.com/Financial-Times/polyfill-service), backed by FT.

Confiks 11y ago
If you're using Webpack there is also a great and simple loader module here: https://github.com/deepsweet/autopolyfiller-loader https://github.com/deepsweet/autopolyfiller-loader Works like a charm

pan_w 11y ago

CDNs beats packages for faster page loads, but there must be a reliable maintainer. This was paramount as I was building SaturnAPI. If anyone needs to utilize MATLAB in the cloud check it out: https://SaturnAPI.com https://SaturnAPI.com

jheriko 11y ago

as a low level developer all of this confuses me. polyfills as a thing at all, multiple solutions and a service that can provide them (but doesn't actually work!) this is why web development makes me feel bad... all this time an effort spent solve very easily and classically well solved problems in the browser, because browsers are wastelands of terrible engineering :I