[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #56699: Remove IE specific checks from default themes

[WordPress Trac]

#56699: Remove IE specific checks from default themes
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 Reporter:  desrosj                              |       Owner:  audrasjb
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  reviewing
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  6.3
Component:  Bundled Theme                        |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch needs-testing needs-dev-   |     Focuses:
  note                                           |
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Comment (by sabernhardt):

 Maybe we should restore the shiv code, plus the credit in Twenty
 Seventeen's `readme` file.

 Editing `html5.js` seems appropriate enough for the themes that are
 already modified, though any sites that might "opt in" to load it with the
 stylesheet(s) would need the code. The ticket summary says to remove the
 //checks//, not necessarily all the related code.

 #54421 purposely allowed sites to restore the skip link script; however,
 with this ticket, restoring the older IE code could be more difficult
 //and// less valuable for most sites.

 I had started a [https://github.com/sabernhardt/wordpress-develop/pull/24
 PR with limited changes] yesterday to consider that option before making a
 decision. To maintain or restore IE support with those sets of changes,
 site owners would need to:
 1. Keep the conditional code from Twenty Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen/Fourteen,
 most likely with their own `header.php` file in a child theme. (If they
 already have the template, this part would be completed.)
 2. Enqueue any registered stylesheet(s) and/or script that had been
 enqueued earlier. (Theoretically, sites could have added the styles and
 script separate from the parent, either by printing directly or by
 enqueuing another stylesheet with the IE styles as a dependency.)

 The Twenty Eleven child theme example would have no difference (on the
 front end) with only the limited changes for that theme. Removing styles
 and/or the script code from themes would require finding what was removed
 and adding it somewhere just to continue supporting the old browsers at
 the same level.

 On the other hand, the files would be lighter and/or cleaner without the
 old code. I do not expect IE<10 support to be anyone's priority, and I
 even think Twenty Fifteen through Twenty Seventeen had lost IE8 support
 with the jQuery update three years ago. [55981] dropped legacy support for
 custom colors and [55980] removed gradient filters, which I think are
 acceptable changes for the one visit out of maybe more than 1,500.

 For the Twenty Eleven commit: changes on this ticket should also fix
 #46771.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/56699#comment:31>
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