code-server on older web browsers.

[8Bitz0]

code-server doesn't seem to work on browsers older than a year (like Google Chrome 80 or earlier). When loading it with an older version you can login just fine but the workspace is completely white. What causes this?

EDIT: When checking the console it shows the error Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) workbench.js.

[im-coder-lg]

Aha! Maybe the workspace JavaScript file is missing, so this happened. @jsjoeio can you locate a workspace js file in the codebase and share it here?

[whoyouhow]

Yup exactly. We might still have this problem in the next release depending on the target VS Code is using.

Does that mean we cannot use code-server in old browsers like Chrome 80-?

[im-coder-lg]

Perhaps. As JS and TS keep evolving, so should the browsers themselves. So, maybe that's why some webpages don't load on computers with old browsers, as the JS could be incompatible with the provided engine. Am I right?

[jsjoeio]

You can try but it's not guaranteed to work!

[whoyouhow]

I got a similar problem when I was trying to use code server on Chrome 72. It shows a blank page instead of 404, but the errors are identical. I think the errors are caused by ES6 grammar.
So is it possible to apply polyfills on the code server? Sorry for the silly question, but I'm not familiar with the structure of code server project.

[jsjoeio]

Hmm...maybe? It might be easier to fork it and then change the tsconfig.json. You may have to change it in /lib/vscode as well.