WebHID API Support, please!

[ChrisK]

Ladies, Gentlemen,

I'd like to see WebHID API support in Firefox, as is already present in some competing browser families. See CanIUse on this. Obviously, the MDN is aware of this API, and even provides documentation thereof.

Is there any chance, that this gets implemented anytime soon, maybe as an experimental feature?

Thanks for your kind consideration.

Best regards,

Chris

[freerror]

Yes! There is a whole niche community of keyboard enthusiasts, and a lot less niche group of average users who would like to interface with their hardware directly via the web when offered for support by vendors. Being the last browser to offer support for this feature is just driving users away from Firefox. That temporary switch will be permanent for many users.

[Idesmi]

My computer runs openSUSE Kalpa, which comes with Mozilla Firefox included. It is unfortunate that I need to install Ungoogled Chromium just to configure my keyboard through VIA.

[Idesmi]

Here it looks like Mozilla considers WebHID as not secure in its current draft proposal.

[freerror]

Having read just the comments on the draft proposal I understand and sympathize with Mozilla's position with these APIs (in terms of the argument around anti-competitive practices by google), but I'm totally fed up with the security ("threat model") pretense and things being impossible or very difficult to disable/enable "for my own protection". It is not misaligned with the browser's privacy and security focus to have option flags or warning dialogs educating users around the possible threats. Please consider injecting a little more enthusiasm around user freedom, as I think this is important for a competitive edge among browsers, along with the existing focus on having excellent security. I'd also be grateful If anyone has any links to a more complete conversation around this as there must be more to this than "a website could break your device with this API" which is the essence of the stated position.