HTML5 Shiv is a JavaScript workaround, created by Sjoerd Visscher, to enable styling of HTML5 elements in versions of Internet Explorer prior to version 9, which do not allow unknown elements to be styled without JavaScript.
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Internet Explorer compatibility and version usage
Prior to version 9 of Internet Explorer there was little or no support for HTML5 elements and other HTML5 features.
Internet Explorer used to command a large percentage of the usage share of web browsers, so this was urgently needed at a given time. Originally, within the Internet Explorer percentage, most of the usage was for version 9, with version 8 holding the second-highest and version 7 the third-highest value. Within that situation, it was important to ensure that web pages function correctly in Internet Explorer. HTML5Shiv allows versions of Internet Explorer prior to version 9 to recognize the HTML5 tags and allows them to be styled using CSS. Today, IE dominance has waned and currently Chrome is the lead by a great margin, thus rendering HTML5 Shiv function as irrelevant.
Usage example
Using HTML5 Shiv on an HTML5 web page is simple; you may do so with or without installation of the library. Below is an example of how to conditionally include HTML5 Shiv only for Internet Explorer browsers less-than version 9. The script should be included within the <head> element of the page, after any stylesheets:
See Cdnjs for the changelog and recent version updates of the CDN version. You may also use the GitHub repository to download the most up-to-date version of HTM5Shiv and include it directly in your project directories.