The Problem with Native JavaScript APIs

Many features inspired by popular JavaScript libraries are now available as native JavaScript APIs in today’s powerful browsers. While that may seem convenient given all of the JavaScript you need to write, relying on these APIs will only make code maintenance more difficult in the long run.

In this report, Nicholas Zakas—consultant and former front-end tech leader at Yahoo!—provides a case study to show how different browsers can develop native APIs for the same specification and still end up with different interpretations. You’ll discover how these APIs can tie your code to specific browsers, forcing you to upgrade application logic whenever new browsers and new browser versions are released.

Table of Contents

The Problem with Native JavaScript APIs 1
Issues with Native APIs 2
Case Study: matchMedia() 3
Facades and Polyfills 5
What to Do? 6