TLDR: On what specific grounds did browser-makers reject, deprecate and remove HTML Imports?
This is me (four hours ago):
Apparently I have been living under a rock, because only today I have discovered a web-shaking innovation which sounds tremendously exciting:
HTML Imports - #Include for the Web (Nov 2013)
Crikey. November 2013? That's more than half a decade ago!
HTML IMPORTS?! Really?! Really really?!!
This is something I've wanted to see since the early 2000s!
Wow, look at this: <link rel="import" href="/document-to-import.html">
This looks... amazing. Let's see if there are any other articles about this unheard-of innovation...
:: Pulls out no fewer than 39 articles from search engine discussing HTML Imports. ::
Wow... there's so much to read. (39 pages! No kidding!!) Everyone seems to know all about this stuff. Half the world appears to have written about what an exciting new innovation this is. (Innovation from 2013, anyway...)
:: Pauses for thought after reading several pages in breathless wonder ::
Although... how come I've never heard of HTML Imports ??
Doesn't Firefox... ? Let me just...
:: Runs to check Can I Use HTML Imports ::
Ahhhhhh. I see. Never implemented in Firefox. (Or in Safari).
And what's this I'm now reading everywhere about HTML Imports being deprecated?
HTML Imports deprecated from Chrome 73 onwards and due to be removed in Chrome 80 (Jan 2020)? Whaaaat?! Noooo!! No - I've only just discovered this!!
And the feature is right here on Can I Use HTML Imports. On Chrome and Opera. And - look! - it's just started on Edge, too!!
See?! Not deprecated! Even Edge will now be supporting HTML Imports! It surely can't be deprecated? More and more browsers are supporting it!
Oh. Hang on. Doesn't Opera use WebKit instead of Presto now?
:: Checks ::
Ah. Right. Opera uses the Blink Browser Engine. Same as Chrome. So Opera supports HTML Imports only because Blink does.
Hmm.
What's that?
:: Checks again ::
Oh. Edge 79 is based on Chromium 79. So Edge also uses the Blink Browser Engine now. Same as Chrome. So Edge supports HTML Imports only because Blink does.
So, basically no browser engine supports HTML Imports. Except Blink.
And even Blink deprecated HTML Imports in Chromium 73.
- WebKit doesn't support.
- Presto never supported.
- EdgeHTML never supported.
- Gecko doesn't support.
And now Blink has removed HTML Imports.
Well, that was a rollercoaster.
6 years' worth of fun in 2 hours.
After reading all that, my impression is that Mozilla, particularly, was never keen on:
<link rel="import" href="/document-to-import.html">
I can't see any response from Safari, but I don't see any explicit enthusiasm from that corner, either.
Yet, after scouring the web, I still can't find the reasons articulated anywhere for opposing, rejecting, deprecating and removing HTML Imports.
Question:
On what specific grounds did browser-makers reject, deprecate and remove HTML Imports?