VisualEditor/2012-13 Q2 forward-look

2012/13 Q1

Quarterly VisualEditor forward-look for 2012/13 Q2

2012/13 Q3

This is the forward-looking plan for the VisualEditor team (including Parsoid) for the 2012-13 Q2 cycle (i.e., from the start of October through to the end of December 2012).

Priorities for this quarter

Getting the APIs finished (so other people can more easily get involved)
Improve stability of the core platform on our target browsers (so it works when we…)
Deploy in some form to production in a way that lets test users edit real content

Browser matrix

This is not final, but work-in-progress for the VE team; data current as of end-September 2012.

The unofficial rule for Wikimedia's browser support is that we try to support reading (and not necessarily other functions) for all browsers used by at least 0.1% of page hits based on the WikiStats data. However, VE is complex and requires some specific advanced browser features (most specifically, ContentEditable support, but also very wide JavaScript support), which limits the platforms we can support either technically (indicated by being struck through) or resource-wise (indicated with a N).

Short list

As of June 2016:

N Not supported browsers - The blacklist is currently defined as: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and below; below Android 3; Firefox 11 and below; Safari 6 and below; below Opera 12; all Blackberry; all Silk.
Supported browsers - The whitelist is currently defined as: Firefox 12 and up; Iceweasel 10 and up; Safari 7 and up; Chrome 19 and up; Opera 15 and up, Internet Explorer 11 and up; Edge 12 and up.
Browsers not on either list (such as Internet Explorer 9) are "greylisted"—users will receive a warning, but shouldn't have major issues editing.

Complete list (out of date)

Probable VisualEditor support
*Data as of December 2014 - February 2015, from "Editors" section of http://datavis.wmflabs.org/agents/*
Browser	Desktop			Mobile
Browser	Overall share	Version	Share	Overall share	Version	Share
Android	N/A	Less than 0.1%		34.12%	5	1.28% ?
					4	31.68% ?
					3	0.03% ?
					2	1.13% ?
Chrome^[1]	47.11%	42.0	0.01% ✔	11.61%
		41.0	0.09% ✔
		40.0	8.76% ✔		40.0	4.11% ?
		39.0	33.09% ✔		39.0	7.34% ?
		38.0	1.84% ✔
		37.0	0.75% ✔
		36.0	0.55% ✔
		35.0	0.50% ✔
		34.0	0.32% ✔
		33.0	0.33% ✔
		32.0	0.27% ✔
		31.0	0.36% ✔
		30.0	0.04% ✔
		29.0	0.03% ✔
		28.0	0.01% ✔
		27.0	0.04% ✔
		26.0	0.03% ✔
		25.0	0.01% ✔
		23.0	0.02% ✔
		21.0	0.02% ✔
		16.0	0.01% ?		19	0.06% ?
		11.0	0.03% ?		11.0	0.10% ?
Firefox	33.59%	37.0	0.03% ✔	0.88%
		36.0	0.42% ✔
		35.0	4.84% ✔		35	0.33% ?
		34.0	11.13% ✔		34	0.47% ?
		33.0	13.78% ✔		33	0.08% ✔
		32.0	0.47% ✔
		31.0	1.03% ✔
		30.0	0.34% ✔
		29.0	0.21% ✔
		28.0	0.21% ✔
		27.0	0.06% ✔
		26.0	0.12% ✔
		25.0	0.1% ✔
		24.0	0.24% ✔
		23.0	0.06% ✔
		22.0	0.06% ✔
		21.0	0.07% ✔
		20.0	0.07% ✔
		19.0	0.02% ?
		17.0	0.08% ✔
		16.0	0.13% ✔
		15.0	0.04% ?
		14.0	0.02% ?
		12.0	0.05% N
		11.0	0.01% ?
Mozilla	0.10%^[2]	2.0	0.10% N	0.65%	5.0	0.65% N
MSIE	9.53%	11.0	7.05% ✔	2.03%	11	1.14% ?
		10.0	1.04% N		10	0.89% ?
		9.0	1.15% N
		8.0	0.27% N
		6.0	0.002% N
		4.0	0.02% N
Opera	2.23%	27.0	0.28% ?	N/A	0%
		26.0	1.18% ?
		25.0	0.00% ?
		12.x	0.77% ?
Safari^[3]	4.96%	8.0	2.07% ?	49.19%	8.0	24.28% ✔
		7.0	1.46% ?		7.0	12.60% ?
		6.0	0.80% ?		6.0	1.75% ?
		5.0	0.63% ?		5.0	0.50% ?
					4.0	0.02% ?
					?	10.04% ?

↑ This includes Chromium, Chrome's open source version, which identifies as "Chrome" in its user agent.
↑ Seamonkey
↑ Including iPod, iPad and iPhone as appropriate.

Notes (out of date):

Android – 4.0+ (no current automated testing): Android before v. 3.0 does not support ContentEditable, so we will have to fall back to wikitext editing.
Chrome – 19.0+; 29.0+ actively tested: Chrome has auto-update (but rapid version increases); VE team roughly intend to actively support only the current, soon-to-be-current, and two immediately previous versions, though we intend for all versions at 19.0 and above to work without issue (including forks like Iceweasel). Versions below 19.0 may be possible to support if necessary.
Firefox – 15.0+; 23.0+ actively tested: Firefox has auto-update (but rapid version increases); VE team roughly intend to actively support only the current, soon-to-be-current, and two immediately previous versions, though we intend for all versions at 15.0 and above to work without issue (including forks like Iceweasel). There are some technical issues that prevent Firefox 10.0 to 14.0 from being removed from the blacklist; these are solvable if necessary (see bug). Versions below 10.0 lack necessary technological support. Firefox ESR is supported only if the underlying version is supported, so Firefox ESR 10 is not currently supported, but Firefox ESR 17 and Firefox ESR 24 should work fine.
Mozilla – No support: Mozilla itself is an ancient browser, and cannot be supported due to technological issues. Lots of browsers are mis-reported as Mozilla but are in fact much more modern, and should work without issue.
MSIE (Internet Explorer) – 11.0+ (currently suspended): Each version of MSIE is differently broken, and adds significant support burden. However, as it is still relatively popular, the team intend to support 9.0 and upwards. Versions below 9.0 suffer from a a variety of missing key technologies which mean they cannot be made to work with VisualEditor.
Opera – 12.00+ (no current automated testing): Opera Desktop (from 12.00 onwards) is a cousin of Chrome, and should work without incident. Opera Mini does not support contentEditable, so VisualEditor can never work on it.
Safari – 5.0+ (no current automated testing): Safari Desktop is a cousin of Chrome, and should work without incident. Safari on iOS (iPad/iPhone/iPod) has very wide-spread auto-update; VE team roughly intend to actively support only the current, soon-to-be-current, and immediately previous version only.

Removed from plan

Parsoid

C++ implementation for December
We have decided to focus on the Node/JS prototype of the Parsoid for the December release as we do not expect to have the C++ version ready by then.

Node-handlers

Table editor
Due to the unexpected difficulties encountered, we do not expect to ship additional node handlers (for other content types) before December, including tables.
Citation editor
Due to the unexpected difficulties encountered, we do not expect to ship additional node handlers (for other content types) before December, including citations.
Definition lists editor
Due to the unexpected difficulties encountered, we do not expect to ship additional node handlers (for other content types) before December, including definition lists.

Areas of work

To come.

Open Questions