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218 points mdhb | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.223s | source
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shermantanktop ◴[] No.44392381[source]
A basic lesson we've learned over and over is that API/ABIs aren't final. Application needs are never permanently fulfilled by a stable API, with all future problems considered to be app-level issues.

This proposal is a good example of how common issues with the platform are solved on top (React etc.) until we recognize them as a problem and then push them down. Polyfills are another example.

If a proposal like this succeeds, it lives a time in the sun, but then spends most of its useful life being the old thing that people are trying to work around, just like the DOM API, just like ECMA versions, just like old browsers, just like every other useful bit of tech that is part of the system but can't be touched.

Is it possible to think about entropy, extension and backcompat as primary use cases?

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1. troupo ◴[] No.44395752[source]
> A basic lesson we've learned over and over is that API/ABIs aren't final.

On the web they are. Once something is out in the open on the web, there will be people depending on this, in this exact form, forever.

That's why there are still APIs that end up in "smooshgate" because of decisions from 20 years ago: https://developer.chrome.com/blog/smooshgate