[CSS3] Vendor prefixes are like science…

Vendor prefixes are like science: they are neither good or bad. They are what you do with them. Today, it seems some browser vendors are misusing them. Some poeple therefore advocate for their deletion. Is that really a good idea?

I will no go in the subject in depht. Many others have done it already. I’ll just give my opinion: experimental features should be kept in experimental builds. And to explain my point of view, nothing like an real-life analogy :

If medical corporations were selling experimental drugs at large scale, they could maybe save lifes because they shipped early. But, clearly, it is not allowed today anymore because it has become clear that the risks are more important than the gains. When they are developing new drugs, there’s firstly an experimental period in labs and with a small amount of people. It takes time, but is what has allowed us to have faith in the drugs we buy.

Testing should be reserved to testers; don’t put the whole web at risk.

A feature implemented in an RTM browser doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to follow the spec at 100% at initial shipping. It has to be approximately interoperable with other browsers. It’s the only thing we ask. Shipping early is clearly not a way to achieve that goal.