Any day now

# Any day now

Chrome 38 – the first browser to support native responsive image 
markup – is due to be pushed out to the stable channel’s [hundreds 
of millions of 
users](http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/15/googles-chrome-browser-now-has-750-million-active-users/) 
any day now.

[Google’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QINlm3vjnaY) 
[excited](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzc5Dly_jEM).

While we wait, let’s recap a *bumper-crop* of responsive image chatter 
from the past couple of weeks:

> To `picture`, or not to `picture`– that is the question:

Jason Grigsby and Chris Coyier wrote a pair of 
[excellent](http://blog.cloudfour.com/dont-use-picture-most-of-the-time/) 
[articles](http://css-tricks.com/responsive-images-youre-just-changing-resolutions-use-srcset/) 
that hammer home the distinction between the resolution-switching and 
art-direction use cases; `picture` is best reserved for the latter. When 
you’re not art-directing, use `srcset`!

Chris gives the friendliest technical explanation of how browsers 
actually use `srcset`, `sizes`, and `w` to pick a source that I’ve yet 
seen.

And Jason asks: why do we call it “the `picture` spec”, anyways? 
Maybe we shouldn’t!

> Whether tis nobler in the mind to polyfill
> The `srcset`s and `sizes`, outrageously awesome

Meanwhile, over on the Filament Group blog, Scott Jehl (Picturefill 
author) [takes a hard look at some very hard 
questions](http://filamentgroup.com/lab/to-picturefill.html): why 
polyfill, ever? What are the benefits and what are the costs? Given the 
new markup’s native fallbacks, why polyfill responsive images, 
specifically? It’s a very thoughtful take; he comes out on the side of 
Picturefilling, for now.

Scott’s post came out of a discussion of whether or not to include 
Picturefill in Drupal 8. Drupal’s developers are blazing all kinds of 
trails as [they work furiously to implement the new 
markup](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/newsletters/issues/62). 
Watching them [hash out a responsive images CMS 
UI](https://www.drupal.org/node/2334387) has been particularly 
fascinating.

> Or to take arms against a sea of implementers
> and by dymanic [sic] attacks, oppose them. To DIY— feature creep—

[“I will write the fresh hell out of a 
spec.”](https://miketaylr.com/posts/2014/09/picture-element-spec-hidden-logs.html)

> No more; and by a speech or two we end
> The headache, and deliver a thousand natural talks<br />
> That flesh out how-to.

The videos from Yoav’s [responsive 
images](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC3VgcltKKI) and 
[preloader](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7yf_tR6kKc) talks at 
Velocity are up. And if the topic of preloaders fascinates (or 
befuddles), [Andy Davies slides from London 
Webstandards](http://www.slideshare.net/AndyDavies/london-web-standards-20140922-pdf) 
are worth a look.

Dave Newton gave a great respimg talk at Accessibility Camp Toronto; his 
slides are 
[here](https://speakerdeck.com/newtron/using-responsive-images-responsibly-performance-and-accessibility) 
and [here](https://github.com/nwtn/pres-respimg-perf-a11yto). The Venn 
diagram explaining how responsive design, performance, accessibility, 
and progressive enhancement are all distinct, complimentary pieces of a 
strategy that reaches as many people as possible is a favorite.

And last but not least, RICG Chair Mat Marquis [gave a talk at An Event 
Apart Austin](http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1922) and [only 
threatened the audience with violence 
once](https://twitter.com/projekt202/status/514446031954534400).

> Tis an implementation
> Devoutly to be wish’d.

I’ll say it: Microsoft is embracing an open stance towards the open 
web. First the Internet Explorer team [let us know what they’re 
working on](https://status.modern.ie); now they’ve taken things to 
another level entirely and are [letting us *vote* on new 
features](https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/257854-internet-explorer-platform). 
I think you know what to do:

- 
[srcset](https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/257854-internet-explorer-platform/suggestions/6261267-srcset-attribute-on-images)
- 
[picture](https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/257854-internet-explorer-platform/suggestions/6261271-picture-element)

Those two are currently trailing Service Workers, the Shadow DOM, 
auto-update, and two different suggestions that IE’s rendering engine 
be abandoned entirely. Old IE-hating habits die hard!

> To code— to commit.
> To commit— perchance to deploy: ay, there's the rub!

Lastly, I want to point you to [Brent Lineberry’s 
recap](http://writings.orangegnome.com/writes/implementing-responsive-images-in-a-production-environment/) 
of his team’s responsive image implementation on Emory’s [Goizueta 
Business School site](http://goizueta.emory.edu/). The website in 
question is large and complex; first-hand accounts of the rubber meeting 
the road like this are *invaluable*. I expect to read a lot more of them 
in the coming months as the dev community as a whole figures out how to 
best leverage the new features.

See you in a couple of weeks!

—eric