Re: Next Web Focus

> On Jan 25, 2014, at 7:27 AM, "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com> wrote:
> 
> The virtuous cycle of API development through polyfills still needs a serious jumpstart.  I agree that it's the way forward, and would much rather see focus on building a polyfill ecosystem than pushes for changes to the basic structures of HTML/CSS/JS/DOM interaction.

As a software developer I can absolutely see the merit in this approach. Unfortunately I can also see plenty of places where it becomes a problem, since I work with the EPUB industry. We have polyfills implemented for things like CSS Regions, or for EPUB Page Templates and Advanced Hybrid Layouts, or for dynamic print layout for paged eBooks. Unfortunately there's not enough processing power in the majority of mobile devices, whether smartphones, tablets, or eReaders, to make effective use of them. A polyfill that implements something complex like regions or ¯ God forbid ¯ CSS4 Paged Media or GCPM is going to have to implement a significant amount of the browser engine's most critical, finely-tuned layout code. In JavaScript. Possibly running in purely interpreted mode (hello, iOS).

If we decide to focus purely on those implementations before looking at specifying changes at the HTML of CSS levels, then lower powered mobile platforms are going to be left behind for, what, an extra year or two? The ebook standards groups have attempted to define ways of doing some of these things already, and we're still waiting, while polyfills aren't able to provide a commercial-quality implementation.

In short: let's try and do polyfills and core standards concurrently, not serially, perhaps? Those of is who have concrete requirements on which new functionality and standards would be built would prefer to see them fulfilled in 2-3 years than in 5-6…

Received on Saturday, 25 January 2014 16:21:57 UTC