Hey folks! I just put up a poll on twitter asking about the minimum version of IE that you need to support in your endeavors. If you can take a moment to click one of the options that would help with some Hype product decisions for the next major version 
. Thanks!
Unless the goal is to get people talking about Hype on Twitter, this really shouldn't even be a question.
Look at the list. I don't see... 6... 7... 8... 9... or 10 on it. If Microsoft ended support, why are you supporting these browsers?
You're hurting the growth of your app ā and the Internet itself ā by supporting such antediluvian software. Do you see press coverage about the diligent software shop that still supports IE 6? I've seen the opposite...
Folks that use Hype have a variety of different needs and circumstances. I like to test my hypothesis that it is okay to remove support before actually doing so and angering users. Even though IE 6 was 10 years old when Hype first came out, I had a ton of folks tell us in the pre-1.0 days that they could not use such a tool unless there was support for it.
I like to think it is a virtue that we care about backwards compatibility .
That is a cool feature of Hype, but I think this is going too far. That's because it's a tradeoff of making the runtime lightweight...
Looks like dozens of sections of code could be dropped out if you simply didn't support IE 10 and below.
...and then there are new features. Anything new has to be tested with crappy browsers. Why? Who's asking for IE10 or lower support? If they truly need it, why not just run an older version of Hype?
Here's my favorite example... CSS Variables.
I don't like SASS / SCSS. I'd rather just use pure vanilla CSS. Of all the features of a CSS preprocessor... mixins, loops, functions... there's only one feature I miss ā Variables.
And what do you know... that's already native...
...but wait, what's that red block to the left... OH... of course... it's Internet Explorer. The browser was great in its heyday, but now it needs to go. Even Microsoft conceded this by switching Edge to Chromium.
Like, how do you even test IE 6? Do you load up VirtualBox or something? Do you air-gap it, because who's patching the vulnerabilities on unsupported software? ...and why do you want to waste your time?
Yes, it's been said before, but Windows support is probably more important than supporting dead Windows browsers.
Just look at the forums. Where's the discussion about IE6-10?
- Search results for 'ie6 order:latest' - Tumult Forums
- Search results for 'ie10 order:latest' - Tumult Forums
Some of the threads are separated by years. Does Tumult really have the resources to waste on this? I think it's great that you care about backwards compatibility, but there are so many better things to care about than IE 6-10.
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What's IE 
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Iād like the repeat my stance on this voiced also on twitter. I agree with @Photics that you really should shed the weight of supporting the old IE versions. For all people dependent on Hype and still wanting to support the old browsers or using Hype in some company build chain. Hype 4 did the job until now and can continue todo it for the foreseeable future.
Hype 5 should really be a bold move into the future. Revamping plugins, shedding old browsers and cleaning up the nested DIV structures (container > element) along with better support for native CSS, 3D and blending (and more).
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The reason I ran the poll was because I want to remove support for some older browsers. Votes for removal don't really change that; votes against it would make me reconsider 
.
There are times when an individual's perceptions are different from the realities of the world; polling and feedback helps for accurate awareness.
I will point out a funny reality is that supporting the latest browsers is much harder than supporting older ones - older ones don't change but new ones continue to break in fun and interesting ways.
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Usage of IE in 2021 (Desktop, with Mobile in the mix the numbers get diluted even lower):
1.7%... Afrika
1.5%... USA
1.3%... worldwide
1%... Canada
0.78%... Europe
In India, South America and Africa
0.23-0.38%
Let drop it in favor of modern JS and concepts like Proxy etc.
I am certainly doing so... in my Hype extensions going forward.
I think if a new version of Hype was launched this year, then supporting Internet Explorer might make sense. But next year, nope! Internet Explorer was a great browser, but you should not be using it now.
the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10 .
I also made this nice video. 
10 Awesome & Important Features You Can Use When You Stop Supporting Internet Explorer
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