Polyfill (programming): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:46, 30 October 2013

Revision as of 16:12, 27 January 2014

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In [[web development]], a '''''polyfill''''' (or '''''polyfiller''''') is downloadable code which provides facilities that are not built into a web browser. For example, many features of [[HTML5]] are not supported by versions of [[Internet Explorer]] older than version 8 or 9, but can be used by web pages if those pages install a polyfill.<ref name=Sharp2010>{{cite web|last=Sharp|first=Remy|title=What is a polyfill?|url=http://remysharp.com/2010/10/08/what-is-a-polyfill/|accessdate=13 January 2012}}</ref> Web [[Shim_(computing)|shims]]<ref>[http://afarkas.github.com/webshim/demos/ Webshim]</ref> and [[HTML5 Shiv]]s are a related concepts.

Polyfills can also be used to add entirely new functionality to browsers. For instance, [[BrowserID]] relies on a [[Javascript]] [[Application Programming Interface|API]] which (as of mid-2012) is not supported in any browser and must be provided via a polyfill.<ref>{{cite web