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Clearleft


BROWSER SUPPORT


FEATURES, NOT BROWSERS

We don’t base our browser support on specific browser names and numbers.
Instead, our support policy is based on the capabilities of those browsers.

The Baseline initiative is a joint effort by Google, Microsoft, Apple, and
Mozilla to categorise browser support for web standards. Baseline provides clear
information about which web standards features are ready to use in websites. It
designates new features into two categories:

 1. Newly available – a feature is supported by the latest versions of all core
    browsers
 2. Widely available – a feature has been supported across browsers for at least
    30 months

We use the Baseline project to determine which browser features to use in
production. If a feature is widely available according to Baseline, we can use
it.


PROGRESSIVE ENHANCEMENT

If a feature is newly available, we might still use it, but we’ll ask a
follow-up question:

> Can this feature be used as a progressive enhancement?

In other words, will using this feature harm browsers that don’t support it? If
a newly-available feature can be used as a progressive enhancement, we could use
it. If not, we’ll wait until the feature becomes widely available and choose a
different approach in the meantime.

This approach restricts usage of new features to nice-to-have additions rather
than mission-critical requirements. But it means we don’t necessarily have to
wait for every browser to support a feature before using it.


SUPPORT VS. OPTIMISATION

We support every browser. We optimise for none.

SUPPORT

When we say we support every browser, we mean that the core content and
functionality of a website should be available to any browser. That doesn’t mean
the content will look exactly the same in every browser.

It also doesn’t mean that every interaction will be identical or available to
every browser. Some interactions may be implemented as progressive enhancements
only available to newer browsers, provided the interaction isn’t part of the
core functionality of the website.

OPTIMISATION

If a browser doesn’t yet support a specific feature, it almost certainly will in
the future – Interop provides a list of features which browser makers have
collectively agreed to prioritise. Therefore rather than optimising for specific
browsers, we’ll spend time ensuring that features are deployed as progressive
enhancements so that lack of support isn’t a blocker.

We try to avoid using polyfills, hacks and workarounds that would need to be
removed at a later stage.


ACCESS FOR ALL

Underlying our browser support policy are two foundational principles:

 1. Website content and core functionality should be accessible to everyone.
 2. It’s okay for websites to look different in different browsers.

If content is unreadable in some browsers, that’s a bug that we will fix.

If content is displayed slightly differently in some browsers, we consider that
to be a facet of the web, not a bug. This means that there will sometimes be
subtle visual and functional differences from browser to browser. We deem this
acceptable provided content and core functionality are unaffected.

This document by Clearleft is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International

You can distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon this document in any medium or
format, even for commercial purposes, as long as you credit Clearleft.