Webpack Dev Server No Longer Runs On Older Browsers

[bdwain]

• Operating System: Mac Sierra
• Node Version: 8.5
• NPM Version: 5.4.2 (But I use yarn 1.0.2)
• webpack Version: 3.6.0
• webpack-dev-server Version: 2.8.2

• This is a feature request
• This is a bug

Code

  // webpack.config.js
  anything will have this issue as long as you run webpack dev server

Expected Behavior

I can run my dev server in chrome 30, the latest browser supported on an old tablet that I'm trying to support, the samsung tab 4

Actual Behavior

It crashes with Uncaught SyntaxError: Use of const in strict mode.

For Bugs; How can we reproduce the behavior?

Run webpack dev server on chrome 30.

I believe the issue originated with this PR #1058, because the const that causes the error is in https://github.com/webpack/webpack-dev-server/blob/master/client/index.js

[shellscape]

@bdwain thanks for creating an issue. buuuuuut please do try searching the issues (or if you have, maybe a few different terms) before hand. we've had a few issues on this already (#1091), and I closed one today (#1104) 😄

Please see those issues for an explanation, but unfortunately supporting really old/behind browsers isn't in the cards.

[bdwain]

sorry i didn't see those. would it not be possible to provide a transpiled version of the client as part of the library's build process (that could be used via an option on the dev server or something)? I know it's extra work to support older browsers, but it's not much extra work and it's useful for a lot of people.

[shellscape]

Providing a transpiled version of the script would imply support for older browsers, I'm afraid. Chrome 30 was released in 2014 and is a full 30 versions behind the latest release. webpack-dev-server being a development tool, it's completely reasonable that we support a variety of recent browsers, and move on from the very old versions. I apologize if this causes you issues with your testing, but please do consider a different vector for testing with webpack/webpack-dev-server on very old browsers.

[lkiarest]

From product feedbacks we got, several browsers of android phone are still using very old version, they even don't support 'let/const' identifier now.

[shellscape]

@lkiarest unfortunately you'll have to use a pre-v2.8.0 version of the module to test on unsupported browsers.

[mrdulin]

save issue.
SyntaxError: Use of const in strict mode.

I fallback webpack-dev-server from ^2.9.1 to ^2.7.1.
The error gone.

[shellscape]

@mrdulin this is already documented on the README and at webpack.js.org. Also, please do not post "me too" replies on an issue.