[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #52331: Consider using more precise browser versions for `browserslist`

[WordPress Trac]

#52331: Consider using more precise browser versions for `browserslist`
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  desrosj                              |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)                         |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  Awaiting
                                                 |  Review
Component:  Build/Test Tools                     |     Version:  4.9
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  2nd-opinion has-patch has-unit-      |     Focuses:
  tests                                          |
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------

Comment (by netweb):

 @desrosj Whilst I understand some of the updates required here, I don't
 think we should support the older browsers on the older versions of
 WordPress to be honest.

 Most legacy systems, even corporate and enterprise machines that still run
 Internet Explorer keep these browser versions updated.

 Firefox and Chrome automatically update the browser versions, so having
 for example support of Chrome `>=79` for the 5.4 branch  and Chrome `>=89`
 for the 5.5 branch I don't think makes much sense

 Similar to the Node.js build tools ticket and that the WordPress project
 does not support old versions of Node.js for the build tooling, similar
 the WordPress project does not support old browsers.

 So much so is that we have had made this decision quite some years ago and
 the supported browsers are documented in:

 > https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/browser-support/

 The above configuration is also included in a Gutenberg package:

 > https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/tree/master/packages
 /browserslist-config

 We should look to updating the older branches to also use this config
 rather than hardcoding these browser versions in each branch of WP

 This was previously discussed when we discussed using the same Node.js
 versions for each branch, that there would be changes to the CSS files due
 to changes in the supported browser versions, so whilst right now we are
 ignoring (and removing) these CSS changes from this series of pull
 requests for now, we should ship these CSS changes just as we should
 eventually also updated the build tools that compile and minify CSS & JS
 files and ship those changes, the changes will be minimal but they will
 also be bug fixes for long known bugs in minified files that are resolved
 these days with the updated build tool versions

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52331#comment:26>
WordPress Trac <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress publishing platform