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A day without JavaScript

sonniesedge.co.uk

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Re: A day without JavaScript

#91
Disclaimer: I am, and have been for the last 5 years, a JavaScript developer

My current off-work project is a web application, that is built with Elixir. I've written 0 lines of JS. It feels really good. This is my way of internalizing some of the points made here[0]

[0] http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

Re: A day without JavaScript

#92
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All modern browsers support JS While that's true it's not reasonable to assume the user has JS enabled. Ad-blocking plugins that also block JS are increasingly common. and it's no longer reasonable to expect all websites to work very well without it. The question should be "what does work very well" actually mean? For a closed application that requires the user to log in I don't really care. Users won't use the app i…

> That's where work needs to be done. Why? Instead of building for 0.5% of users that can just enable JavaScript , why shouldn't I invest the time into building a new feature, writing more unit tests, or writing an app for Windows Phone?

For the same reason we build features in websites that work for blind people (aria tags everywhere), disabled people (accessible buttons), people who speak different languages (i18n), VIM users (GMail keyboard shortcuts), etc. We choose who we build for. If you want to ignore 0.5% of your users then that's your choice, but don't complain when you submit something to HN and get a page of responses saying it doesn't work.

Re: A day without JavaScript

#93
post #29

One thing to consider is that at larger companies, we already have a difficult enough time testing all of our site with JavaScript enabled. Netflix building a version that works without JavaScript is like asking them to build a second website, especially from a QA perspective. When you look at your users and find that .5% of them are not running JavaScript, how do you justify spending the money for that few of people…

The reason is mobile. While only .5% of your users may be non Javascript users it's highly likely a significant percentage of your users are on mobile and not optimizing for progressive enhancement means a significantly degraded experience for all of them at various times when it fails to load or loads too slowly on a mobile connection.

Re: A day without JavaScript

#94
post #87
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about power consumption as another valid argument? Your battery will last longer without Javascript.

It will last even longer without CSS

And most websites that work without JS also work fine without CSS. Almost like a pattern that can be found in properly built websites.

Re: A day without JavaScript

#95
post #38

> For me it’s a matter of elegance and simplicity over unnecessary complexity. Simplicity is having one place where the DOM is created and managed, and optimizing for the 99% use case. Complexity is splitting up DOM rendering over two networked systems for servicing a 1% use case. Browsers are JS runtimes now. Get over it.

I'd be very interested to see some proper analysis of the difference in speed between HTML/CSS vs just JS, it seems obvious to me that the former would be much faster but then again I know how often "obvious" things are wrong.

Re: A day without JavaScript

#96
post #29

One thing to consider is that at larger companies, we already have a difficult enough time testing all of our site with JavaScript enabled. Netflix building a version that works without JavaScript is like asking them to build a second website, especially from a QA perspective. When you look at your users and find that .5% of them are not running JavaScript, how do you justify spending the money for that few of people…

To help our (internal) customers better troubleshoot, we're adding HTML responses to our HTTP (web) services. Add a header, a footer, maybe some HATEOS... Starts looking like a barebones web site.

Re: A day without JavaScript

#97
Third-party scripts aren't just a performance problem---consider privacy/trackers as well. I gave a talk at LibrePlanet 2017, where one of the things I showed is the drastic effect disabling JavaScript has on third-party scripts, graphed by Lightbeam:

https://mikegerwitz.com/talks/sapsf.pdf (slide 60 / pg 115, "The Web---Mitigations & Anonymity").

There's a bunch of stuff before that slide that's mitigated by JS, including things like ultrasound cross-device tracking and hardware fingerprinting.

Re: A day without JavaScript

#98
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not unreasonable to expect hyperlinks or images to work without JS. Fancier stuff sure, but basic navigation through a content only site should be functional without it. This is what HTML does and you have to be profoundly lazy to screw that up.

My favorite pet peeve is JS links, that aren't actually links, but spans or divs with click handlers, so there's no way to right-click->open in new tab or ctrl-click->open in new tab. It's like intentionally doing something that is harder, and works shittier; I don't get it.

Or my favorite, <a href="javascript:void(0)"...

Re: A day without JavaScript

#99

I generally agree with what he is saying, but the web has moved beyond the point where its reasonable to expect websites to have JS fallbacks. It is just too prominent now a days. I've always been a JS hater, though I have to code it frequently.. However, with that said I find the arguments against the language becoming more and more obsolete as the years go on.

[deleted]

Re: A day without JavaScript

#100
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will last even longer without CSS

And most websites that work without JS also work fine without CSS. Almost like a pattern that can be found in properly built websites.

Why doesn't the market care? Where is the JS-less Facebook/Twitter/Airbnb competitor that blows the customers away with "properly built" websites?
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