Flexible Box Model pleasssseeeee

I would love for Opera to support the Flexible Box Model ("display: box")! Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all support it (though it differs slightly for Firefox...not enough to make major difference though), so don't be left in the dust like IE guys!

On a side note, I get that all browsers have their own chain of command and such to go through.....but why can't all browsers just support new coding when it first comes out, or agree to wait until it's completely ready? It's ridiculous that a designer has to either make back-up coding to work on browsers that don't support certain features, or for-go using any new features until every browser supports it, just to make their website work. The majority of my eye rolling is towards IE, but lately, the differences between Webkit and Moz have been a little annoying as well. And I thought Opera was one of the front-runners, as far as implementing new/experimental features goes?

Opera seems like the Apple of browsers...it should be leading the way, not catching up.

You noted that Firefox has a different implementation than the Webkit browsers do. This is most likely because the spec for the flexible box model was recently overhauled and very little of it is the same as the old spec. Also, if you read through the current spec, you'll notice quite a few red "ISSUE" boxes. In other words, the spec is currently in development and parts of it may still change dramatically before it is done.

Opera tends to implement new features once the spec describing them stabilizes. While this means Opera may not have the experimental features before other browsers, it can save Opera quite a lot of work. If the spec changes after Opera has already implemented a feature, suddenly they have to go back and fix or, in a worst case scene scenario, redo their implementation.

Originally posted by theradhatter:

why can't all browsers just support new coding when it first comes out, or agree to wait until it's completely ready? It's ridiculous that a designer has to either make back-up coding to work on browsers that don't support certain features, or for-go using any new features until every browser supports it, just to make their website work.

I do not believe it is ridiculous that web designers cannot count on experimental features working in every browser. Experimental features are just that—experimental. If nobody implemented the features, nobody would have a good idea of how well said features worked. This works very well for open source browsers like Chrome and Firefox, as everybody can download the latest code and test it.

Opera is waiting by stable flexbox specifications. If you use first implementation of this specification, your web page/application is broken or will be broken. Opera has own internal builds to try new web technologies. However, despite of small amount of people in Opera core team, they do the best in terms of time.