Github and Windows XP

[DrunkenTanker]

I use Mypal 29. And Github does not work correctly again. Seems Microsoft does not like that some people still use Windows XP and get access to Github.

I tested with lastest version of extensions: https://github.com/martok/palefill

https://github.com/JustOff/github-wc-polyfill/releases

I suppose that we should has an alternative for repositories (source codes).

[gerwin]

Github currently works reasonably well with current NewMoon (Palemoon) 28 unofficial fork supplied by Roytam, together with an unofficial "github-wc-polyfill-1.2.19.1" extension, also supplied by Roytam (based on JustOff's original).

See the "My browser builds" topic on this forum.

Edited July 13, 2022 by gerwin

[George King]

2 hours ago, gerwin said:

Github currently works reasonably well with current NewMoon (Palemoon) 28 unofficial fork supplied by Roytam, together with an unofficial "github-wc-polyfill-1.2.19.1" extension, also supplied by Roytam (based on JustOff's original).

See the "My browser builds" topic on this forum.

To save some time, here can be downloaded mentioned extension

https://o.rthost.win/boc-uxp/?sort=date&order=desc

[DrunkenTanker]

SyntaxError: expected expression, got '.'[Learn More]  
vendors-node_modules_delegated-events_dist_index_js-node_modules_stacktrace-parser_dist_stack-.js:2:7614
SyntaxError: expected expression, got '.'[Learn More]  
environment-3.js:1:1892
SyntaxError: expected expression, got '.'[Learn More]  
vendors-node_modules_github_catalyst_lib_index_js-node_modules_github_time-elements_dist_index_js-3.js:1:4534
SyntaxError: expected expression, got '.'[Learn More]  
github-elements-.js:1:2185
SyntaxError: expected expression, got '.'[Learn More]  
element-registry-0.js:1:927

Console log.
 

[InterLinked]

The reason GitHub doesn't work anymore as of the past few weeks is because of nullish coalescing and optional chaining. Unlike everything else, these can't be polyfilled which is why they are a disaster for the WWW. See the bottom of the README for more details: https://github.com/InterLinked1/chromefill (also https://blog.interlinked.us/69/nullish-coalescing-and-optional-chaining)

The maddening thing is that GitHub tried this before briefly, realized there was massive breakage, and then went ahead and reverted it. They apologized and said they would not do it again. They actually did the right thing! That was several months ago, earlier this year.

Then, without warning, they went ahead and deployed it again, which means **they lied to us** and actively decided to screw us with operators that serve no legitimate purpose in the first place. Their justification is that it allows for a size reduction which increases performances (you know, since you save a character each time you use it). I call BS. The website isn't performant at all if **it doesn't freaking work**!

Basically, GitHub seems to have decided that it the small gain in bandwidth reduction (for files that are generally cached anyways) is more important than breaking compatibility with literally most of the web browsers in existence, those that aren't by "the big 3" from the past year or two.

I highly urge everyone to take a minute and file a GitHub support ticket. They do read tickets and do engage with people, and they need to be aware that this is not acceptable. Even if you don't actively use GitHub, it still helps as if we lose GitHub, then that is a big loss for open source, diverse browsers in general.

You can submit a ticket here: https://support.github.com/contact

You don't have to write essays to them like I have - just take 2 minutes letting them know how this has impacted you and how you feel about and how GitHub has let you down by doing this.

[DrunkenTanker]

14 hours ago, InterLinked said:

The maddening thing is that GitHub tried this before briefly, realized there was massive breakage, and then went ahead and reverted it. They apologized and said they would not do it again. They actually did the right thing! That was several months ago, earlier this year.

Then, without warning, they went ahead and deployed it again, which means **they lied to us** and actively decided to screw us with operators that serve no legitimate purpose in the first place. Their justification is that it allows for a size reduction which increases performances (you know, since you save a character each time you use it). I call BS. The website isn't performant at all if **it doesn't freaking work**!

I suppose that to leave Github is the best way. I have lost too much time.
It they want to make experiments then without me. I'll move to more constant system.

[InterLinked]

1 hour ago, DrunkenTanker said:

I suppose that to leave Github is the best way. I have lost too much time.
It they want to make experiments then without me. I'll move to more constant system.

Well, **tell them that** in that case. A boycott that they don't hear about has no effect!

[InterLinked]

All right, Support ended up telling me to post over on the community forum as well.

If you're upset about GitHub breaking on Windows XP or older browsers in general, you can do your part very easily now - take 2 seconds to head over to the page and provide a +1 and thumbs up.

https://github.com/github-community/community/discussions/20973

We need all the support we can get to move GitHub towards the right solution here!

[mina7601]

15 minutes ago, InterLinked said:

All right, Support ended up telling me to post over on the community forum as well.

If you're upset about GitHub breaking on Windows XP or older browsers in general, you can do your part very easily now - take 2 seconds to head over to the page and provide a +1 and thumbs up.

https://github.com/github-community/community/discussions/20973

We need all the support we can get to move GitHub towards the right solution here!

Done.

[AstroSkipper]

3 hours ago, InterLinked said:

All right, Support ended up telling me to post over on the community forum as well.

If you're upset about GitHub breaking on Windows XP or older browsers in general, you can do your part very easily now - take 2 seconds to head over to the page and provide a +1 and thumbs up.

https://github.com/github-community/community/discussions/20973

We need all the support we can get to move GitHub towards the right solution here!

I performed a +1 and a thunbs up to support your call. I personally hate all unnecessary changes breaking websites which worked in the past. Just to be a bit "modern"! 

[we3fan]

13 hours ago, InterLinked said:

All right, Support ended up telling me to post over on the community forum as well.

If you're upset about GitHub breaking on Windows XP or older browsers in general, you can do your part very easily now - take 2 seconds to head over to the page and provide a +1 and thumbs up.

https://github.com/github-community/community/discussions/20973

We need all the support we can get to move GitHub towards the right solution here!

Done.

[InterLinked]

All right, everyone.

Good news and bad news.

Bad news: GitHub still has done diddly squat about their use of the evil operators. Thanks to those who have given this a thumbs up, I  think personal comments explaining how this has impacted YOU (or how you feel about it) would also be good: https://github.com/community/community/discussions/20973

Good news: I have managed to incorporate automatic transpiling capabilities into the Chromefill extension. This means that GitHub now works fully again in old versions of Chromium. See https://github.com/InterLinked1/chromefill

More bad news: Unfortunately, this is not an elegant solution and probably never will be. Transpiling is SLOW. Reeaaaaaaalllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy sssssssssslllllllllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww. It takes about 15 seconds to fully transpile GitHub with all the garbage that they use on their site, and this is blocking. Transpiling is also very CPU and memory intensive (think compiling, essentially). It's also page blocking, so you can't interact with it and transpiling is done. In the case of GitHub, since it's mostly a single page app, that actually means you only need to do it once per tab and afterwards everything just works for your browsing session, but still, not pretty.

Sites that don't use JavaScript or use minimal JavaScript don't really see any impact. It's only very bloated sites with hundreds of thousands of lines of JavaScript like GitHub that see a significant performance issue.

I think it could be sped up if we could incorporate a transpiler that only focused on these two syntax issues rather than everything, but I'm not sure if such a thing exists.

I repeat, this is not really a solution, it's more of a hacky last resort that can force things to work when sites like GitHub behave idiotically and moronically and refuse to do the right thing.

That said, if this functionality is useful, by all means go for it.

Because of the impact this can have on a site, this functionality is not enabled by default in the extension, it has to be whitelisted per domain. Currently, only github.com is on the list, because that's the only site I use that has this issue. If there are others, feel free to let me know or submit a PR to add it to the list. The goal is to not enable that functionality unless it's actually necessary for a site to work properly.

Anyways, happy browsing, if you do use this, let me know how it works out for you.

[artenox]

On 8/10/2022 at 6:06 PM, InterLinked said:

It's only very bloated sites with hundreds of thousands of lines of JavaScript like GitHub that see a significant performance issue

Github is a relatively lightweight site. At least the basic functionality works in older browsers and fast. Gitlab and Discourse engines, that's the real horror.

[DrunkenTanker]

As I said we need use other website as alternative. I can't download files. Because links are loading eternally: https://github.com/martok/palefill/releases/tag/v1.21

There is my old website. It's terrible looks because ads hostings much, but possible to use to share files. It works well on old browsers.

Edited September 29, 2022 by DrunkenTanker

[j7n]

The Assets show me an eternal spinner too. You can click View Source, search for "Assets" and then load the snippet from <include-fragment>.

Most times big corporations justify new web formats as improving performance. And yet websites are getting dramatically slower overall.

Can you explain in a couple sentences what a "polyfill" is?