Lea Verou, spec editor and library author, argues that polyfills are a net positive for the Web and pushes back against the view expressed by WHATWG's Anne van Kesteren that polyfilling is harmful. She contends that eliminating polyfills doesn't eliminate the need they serve — it just forces developers into worse alternatives like ad-hoc fallbacks. Key arguments include: polyfills decouple API design from implementation, they restore power balance when browsers lag, they demonstrate developer demand that motivates browser implementations, and failure cases (like smooshgate or scoped custom element registries) are actually symptoms of standards processes failing to react to user needs in time — not caused by polyfills themselves. She also critiques proposed alternatives (separate namespaces, ponyfills, dropping feature detection) as historically proven failures or worse tradeoffs. The post concludes that the web standards community should focus on being more proactive about developer needs rather than restricting polyfilling.
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It’s not the polyfillsAre separate namespaces the solution?Is dropping feature detection the solution?Are ponyfills the solution?Do polyfills discourage native implementations?Polyfills only get in the way when the standards process failsPolyfills restore power balance in the ecosystemPolyfills make the Web faster, inclusive, and more robustCan we stop trying to solve the wrong problem?Enjoyed this post?33K Impressions1 Comment