Fix - Stop registering the IE-conditional html5shiv script that fires a deprecation notice

[rajatgautam755421]

Same fix as themegrill/accelerate-pro#113 (reported by @iamprazol in themegrill/accelerate-pro#21), Spacious (themegrill/spacious#151) and Radiate (themegrill/radiate#73).

Since WordPress 6.9, wp_script_add_data( 'html5shiv', 'conditional', 'lte IE 8' ) fires a deprecation notice on every page, and the script is no longer printed at all. Replaced with an empty html5shiv handle, so scripts that list it as a dependency still load. js/html5shiv.js stays, so direct URLs don't 404.

Before (notice shown with debug display on)	After

Regression: page HTML on WP 6.9+ loses only the IE-only html5shiv.js tag; a script depending on html5shiv still prints. The @fresh spec fails on develop (it prints html5shiv.js for every visitor), passes here.

Replaces #57's approach: #57 (merged) kept the enqueue and only skipped the IE condition on WP 6.9+, so html5shiv.js loaded for every visitor. This PR replaces that whole block (the enqueue and the version_compare branch) with the empty handle. Merged develop in to resolve the conflict.

Changelog: Fix - Deprecation notice from the IE-only html5shiv script on WordPress 6.9+.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🔵 Needs a closer look

Compatibility and CI coverage issues remain unresolved.

Review effort: Lite
Findings: None

What changed in this PR

This PR removes the deprecated IE-conditional html5shiv registration and adds regression coverage for PHP notices.

Changes:

• Registers an empty html5shiv dependency handle.
• Adds a homepage smoke test for PHP notices and deprecations.

File	Review summary
inc/​functions.php	Preserve the existing conditional shim for pre-6.9 WordPress; the current change removes IE8 support there.
tests/​e2e/​specs/​smoke/​no-php-notices.spec.ts	Align the test area with changed-file coverage and assert a successful HTTP response.

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[rajatgautam755421]

Re the Copilot overview notes:

• Keep the IE-conditional shim on WP < 6.9 — not doing this, deliberately. It would only serve IE 8, which no supported browser or WordPress version targets, and it keeps two code paths for one dead polyfill. Same decision as the merged Spacious fix (Fix - Deprecated IE-conditional html5shiv enqueue firing a notice on every page load spacious#151) and Radiate (Fix - Stop registering the IE-conditional html5shiv script that fires a deprecation notice radiate#73). The empty html5shiv handle keeps any dependent script loading on every WP version.
• Align the test area / assert a successful response — done in 1fced64: the spec is now @area assets (what inc/functions.php maps to in suite.json, so scope: changed actually runs it) and asserts the homepage returns 200 before checking for notices.

[rajatgautam755421]

@claudegrill suite

[deepench]

This now conflicts with develop: #57 was merged and edits the same html5shiv lines in inc/functions.php.

Could you rebase on develop and replace that block (the always-loaded html5shiv.js plus the version_compare branch) with the empty wp_register_script( 'html5shiv', false, … ) from this PR? After the rebase this removes the extra script that #57 now loads on every page on WP 6.9+. Please also mention in the description that this replaces #57's approach.

[subin-shk]

LGTM 👍

[deepench]

LGTM 👍