6 ms·

Important for those who haven't heard yet: jQuery 2.0 will not support IE 6, 7 or 8.

by mildweed 14y ago

agildehaus 14y ago
I can understand dropping 6 and 7, but 8? That browser's not going away anytime soon.
- fernandezpablo 14y ago
  It's going to have support for al IEs but as an official plugin and not in the main distribution (which is a good thing IMHO)
  - blowski 14y ago
    Do you have a link for that? I've only seen them say "if you need to support IE8, you need to use jQuery 1.9". No mention of a plugin.
- jneal 14y ago
  They are continuing support for both 1.9 (supporting IE6+) and 2.0
- huxley 14y ago
  As I understand it, JQuery 1.9 and 2.0 are supposed to be API identical so what is suggested is to offer JQuery 1.9 to sub-IE9 via conditional comments.
  - indeyets 14y ago
    That's one of the ways, but you can just stick to 1.9 for all of your audience if audience includes early IEs. jQuery 2.0 is more appropriate for mobile web-apps or for intranets, where you know that users use strict subset of browsers
    - nsmartt 14y ago
      Given that jQuery 2.0 is supposed to be significantly faster, parent's approach offers increased speed to users who are not on sub-IE9 browsers.
      - skeletonjelly 14y ago
        Faster how? Do you have any source? Only thing I remember from my brief scan of the release notes was that it was faster to load as it was smaller (fewer browsers to support) but I don't recall anything about processing speed, happy to be proven wrong of course.
        nsmartt 14y ago
        >jQuery 2.0 will not run on oldIE. As a result of removing several layers of barnacle-encrusted code, it will be both faster and smaller than jQuery 1.9. My take here is that various bits of logic have been removed which will also improve processing speed. Of course, they may have been referring to the load speed, and the increase in processing speed may be negligible.
- melling 14y ago
  IE8 is almost 4 years old. I think in another couple of years market share will easily be under 5%. Sure, people on XP can't upgrade to another IE, but they can install Chrome, Firefox or Opera. In the corporate world, admins will upgrade to something else when they have to. With a little nudging maybe they'll have to sooner than later.
  - yuhong 14y ago
    More importantly, it lacks the 10 years old DOM Level 2 and XHTML features, and DOM Level 2 is probably important for jQuery.
    - killion 14y ago
      It and IE 9 also lack CORS support.
- Turing_Machine 14y ago
  I'd be happy if they stopped supporting IE altogether. Ten versions should be enough for Microsoft to get it right. If they haven't gotten it right by now, it's not going to happen. Microsoft needs to fix their crap browser, rather than forcing every web dev on the planet to use nasty hacks and workarounds.
  - timdorr 14y ago
    > Microsoft needs to fix their crap browser, rather than forcing every web dev on the planet to use nasty hacks and workarounds. This is not a problem unique to IE. Firefox, Chome, Safari, and others all need shims/patches/etc too: > But to the point about cross-browser issues, it’s a complete myth that today’s modern browsers have no differences. Look through the jQuery source code and you’ll see plenty of places where it has to fix, patch, and mask issues in modern browsers; those problems didn’t end with IE8. jQuery 2.0 now has more patches and shims for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox than for Internet Explorer! http://blog.jquery.com/2013/01/14/the-state-of-jquery-2013/ http://blog.jquery.com/2013/01/14/the-state-of-jquery-2013/ So, how about we stop spreading myths and using vitriolic language, and provide constructive criticism and feedback so Microsoft and others can all fix bugs and issues with their browsers?
    - MichaelApproved 14y ago
      In my experience, it's not as terrible when things "break" in Chrome, FF or Safari, as it is when they break in IE.
    - Turing_Machine 14y ago
      Code that I write almost invariably works without change in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and all the others (including Opera), then I wind up having to do a bunch of hackery to make it work in IE. I'm talking basic layout and JS functionality, not super-convoluted stuff like jQuery. Sorry, it's an IE problem. As for "constructive criticism and feedback": Microsoft has been ignoring it for the last 15 years. What makes you think they're going to start listening now?
stanleydrew 14y ago
Can anyone comment on or point me to a resource describing what will break when using jQuery 2.0 in an older IE? I assume pages will still render and most basic jQuery functions will still work, but it would be good to know exactly what the degraded behavior will be.
- skeletonjelly 14y ago
  I'm going to take a wild guess and say that IE's javascript engine will halt processing any additional code when it hits an error, so if your site relies on it it won't work very well indeed.
- jcampbell1 14y ago
  Everything, including events will break since IE<9 doesn't support addEventListener, thus $(document).ready() will not even run. Basically don't use 2.0 for the web. The only advantage is that it will be smaller, so if you have a mobile specific site, it could be better.
  - skrebbel 14y ago
    Uhm, if it's not for the web, what's it for? Only for phonegap apps?
    - eloisant 14y ago
      Phonegap apps, mobile web, intranet apps when you know that everyone will be using IE9 or Chrome...
  - nilliams 14y ago
    A better recommendation would be 'don't ship JavaScript to oldIE'. IE 6-8 have terrible JavaScript engines, JavaScript is going to do very little to help you deliver a good experience to users stuck on those browsers. For websites, let these users round-trip to the server for form-submissions, links etc. Progressively enhance with JS for IE9+ If you have commercial customers stuck on oldIE and have to deliver a single-page web app, your answer is Chrome Frame (and yes I've had experience asking customers on corporate networks to install Chrome Frame and had no objections/problems yet, as long as you're up-front with them).

Important for those who haven't heard yet: jQuery 2.0 will not support IE 6, 7 or 8.

agildehaus 14y ago

I can understand dropping 6 and 7, but 8? That browser's not going away anytime soon.

fernandezpablo 14y ago
It's going to have support for al IEs but as an official plugin and not in the main distribution (which is a good thing IMHO)
- blowski 14y ago
  Do you have a link for that? I've only seen them say "if you need to support IE8, you need to use jQuery 1.9". No mention of a plugin.
jneal 14y ago
They are continuing support for both 1.9 (supporting IE6+) and 2.0
huxley 14y ago
As I understand it, JQuery 1.9 and 2.0 are supposed to be API identical so what is suggested is to offer JQuery 1.9 to sub-IE9 via conditional comments.
- indeyets 14y ago
  That's one of the ways, but you can just stick to 1.9 for all of your audience if audience includes early IEs. jQuery 2.0 is more appropriate for mobile web-apps or for intranets, where you know that users use strict subset of browsers
  - nsmartt 14y ago
    Given that jQuery 2.0 is supposed to be significantly faster, parent's approach offers increased speed to users who are not on sub-IE9 browsers.
    - skeletonjelly 14y ago
      Faster how? Do you have any source? Only thing I remember from my brief scan of the release notes was that it was faster to load as it was smaller (fewer browsers to support) but I don't recall anything about processing speed, happy to be proven wrong of course.
      - nsmartt 14y ago
        >jQuery 2.0 will not run on oldIE. As a result of removing several layers of barnacle-encrusted code, it will be both faster and smaller than jQuery 1.9. My take here is that various bits of logic have been removed which will also improve processing speed. Of course, they may have been referring to the load speed, and the increase in processing speed may be negligible.
melling 14y ago
IE8 is almost 4 years old. I think in another couple of years market share will easily be under 5%. Sure, people on XP can't upgrade to another IE, but they can install Chrome, Firefox or Opera. In the corporate world, admins will upgrade to something else when they have to. With a little nudging maybe they'll have to sooner than later.
- yuhong 14y ago
  More importantly, it lacks the 10 years old DOM Level 2 and XHTML features, and DOM Level 2 is probably important for jQuery.
  - killion 14y ago
    It and IE 9 also lack CORS support.
Turing_Machine 14y ago
I'd be happy if they stopped supporting IE altogether. Ten versions should be enough for Microsoft to get it right. If they haven't gotten it right by now, it's not going to happen. Microsoft needs to fix their crap browser, rather than forcing every web dev on the planet to use nasty hacks and workarounds.
- timdorr 14y ago
  > Microsoft needs to fix their crap browser, rather than forcing every web dev on the planet to use nasty hacks and workarounds. This is not a problem unique to IE. Firefox, Chome, Safari, and others all need shims/patches/etc too: > But to the point about cross-browser issues, it’s a complete myth that today’s modern browsers have no differences. Look through the jQuery source code and you’ll see plenty of places where it has to fix, patch, and mask issues in modern browsers; those problems didn’t end with IE8. jQuery 2.0 now has more patches and shims for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox than for Internet Explorer! http://blog.jquery.com/2013/01/14/the-state-of-jquery-2013/ http://blog.jquery.com/2013/01/14/the-state-of-jquery-2013/ So, how about we stop spreading myths and using vitriolic language, and provide constructive criticism and feedback so Microsoft and others can all fix bugs and issues with their browsers?
  - MichaelApproved 14y ago
    In my experience, it's not as terrible when things "break" in Chrome, FF or Safari, as it is when they break in IE.
  - Turing_Machine 14y ago
    Code that I write almost invariably works without change in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and all the others (including Opera), then I wind up having to do a bunch of hackery to make it work in IE. I'm talking basic layout and JS functionality, not super-convoluted stuff like jQuery. Sorry, it's an IE problem. As for "constructive criticism and feedback": Microsoft has been ignoring it for the last 15 years. What makes you think they're going to start listening now?

stanleydrew 14y ago

Can anyone comment on or point me to a resource describing what will break when using jQuery 2.0 in an older IE? I assume pages will still render and most basic jQuery functions will still work, but it would be good to know exactly what the degraded behavior will be.

skeletonjelly 14y ago
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that IE's javascript engine will halt processing any additional code when it hits an error, so if your site relies on it it won't work very well indeed.
jcampbell1 14y ago
Everything, including events will break since IE<9 doesn't support addEventListener, thus $(document).ready() will not even run. Basically don't use 2.0 for the web. The only advantage is that it will be smaller, so if you have a mobile specific site, it could be better.
- skrebbel 14y ago
  Uhm, if it's not for the web, what's it for? Only for phonegap apps?
  - eloisant 14y ago
    Phonegap apps, mobile web, intranet apps when you know that everyone will be using IE9 or Chrome...
- nilliams 14y ago
  A better recommendation would be 'don't ship JavaScript to oldIE'. IE 6-8 have terrible JavaScript engines, JavaScript is going to do very little to help you deliver a good experience to users stuck on those browsers. For websites, let these users round-trip to the server for form-submissions, links etc. Progressively enhance with JS for IE9+ If you have commercial customers stuck on oldIE and have to deliver a single-page web app, your answer is Chrome Frame (and yes I've had experience asking customers on corporate networks to install Chrome Frame and had no objections/problems yet, as long as you're up-front with them).