Web Truths: We need granular control over web APIs, not abstractions

DRANK

This is part of the web truths series of posts. A series where we look at true sounding statements that we keep using to have endless discussions instead of moving on. Today I want to tackle the issue of offering new functionality to the web. Should we deliver low-level APIs to functionality to offer granular control? Or should we have abstractions that get people started faster? Or both?In a perfect scenario, both is the obvious answer. We should have low-level APIs for those working “close to the metal”. And we should offer abstractions based on those APIs that allow for easier access and use.In reality there is quite a disconnect between the two. There is no question that newer web standards learned a lot from abstractions. For example, jQuery influenced many additions to the DOM specification. When browsers finally got querySelector and classList we expected this to be the end of the need for abstractions. Except, it wasn’t and still isn’t. What abstractions also managed to do…