Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

complang.tuwien.ac.at

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 285 posts

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#131

Post by seti0Cha »

mrtksn wrote: post #20

So the "movement" against modern browser features is not a movement and has nothing to do with these features but its simply a version of "kids these days lost their ways" thinking. A version of conservatism, I guess. "Everything was better in the good old days" and "The new generation is horrible, the humanity is doomed" kind of thoughts are probably a manifestation of fading youth.

Back in my day, when kids heard older people talking, they listened because they knew they were hearing from someone with more experience than themselves. Kids these days lost their ways and think that knowledge and judgement are achieved in youth and then gradually fade away.

Just kidding, back in my day kids assumed the same thing.

Also, this exact conversation has been happening since the web was created. Linked article is evidence of that.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#132

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

somecommit wrote: post #85

Need some max-width to whatever the average screen was back in 1999. True story, I re-uploaded a website that I wrote in 1999, only now I discover that my header was never centered, if was just floating left. It's the only thing that look off, everything else is working perfectly. HMTL/CSS/JS is really a stable stack for the computer field.

The paper letter from the 19 hundreds is also still working perfectly, just a little bit dusty and yellowed.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#133

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

SuperSandro2000 wrote: post #129
forgotmypw17 wrote: post #70

I still use this strategy, though these days, I primarily use Mosaic and Netscape for testing. I tend to browse without JavaScript enabled, except for places I already trust to not abuse it. And if there is anything blocking me from accessing the page, such as a modal dialog, a cookie notice, a survey, a prompt to sign up for the newsletter, I close the tab. Over time, I have found that type of rude lack of considera…

Quoted post unavailable.

The comment seems overly dismissive. I believe parent raises a valid point.If we accept that we are consumers and capitalism theoretically expects that one is an informed consumer, it is primarily up to us to determine future shape of the landscape. Naturally, what follows seems to be:

-we are not informed consumers -informed consumers are a minority -uninformed consumers are a boon to capitalism

To you specific point, is it ivory tower to know what you want and make decisions that benefit you specifically and not partake in Zeitgeist just because everyone else is?

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#134

Post by jmclnx »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #3

My modern version of this is browsing with JavaScript disabled. Most of the sites that don’t work weren’t worth my time anyway.

I use noscript for this, plus I am running into sites that presents a screen stating "Cloudflare is checking". That Cloudflare check requires Javascript enabled. So I just move on, that to me means that site cannot even count me as a 'view'. Makes things a bit easier for me too :)

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#135

Post by Ensorceled »

naasking wrote: post #104
Ensorceled wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can go the other way, the CEO at one company I worked at demanded that we have a rich, dynamic user experience with real time editing AND we fully support all the browsers that had visited the site in the last 6 months. We had people using Blackberry, IE6, Opera, Konqueror and stuff you've never heard of. They were happy to force javascript but wanted it to work on early smart phones. The VP product was losing her…

Bizarre. It's like starting a parking lot business by trying to accommodate every vehicle you see driving by your site over 6 months. You could have Winnebagos, tractor trailers and more bizarre vehicles, none of which you should consider as viable customers.

Yeah, I've encountered this quite few times, especially as a consultant; "We won't turn away ANYONE!!!"

Edit: Ok, now I'm laughing the idea of having a reserved parking spot for trucks hauling giant windmill blades.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#136

Post by 0xAFFFF »

Qub3d wrote: post #111
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We always complain about bloat and slowness, then we build faster machines and networks and bigger storage, and software and content promptly expand to fill it all up and make it feel sluggish again. For a chuckle try running old software on a modern computer (fire up dos box and run WordPerfect or something) and be amazed at the speed of the thing. that is why we built a faster computer :)

We've made machines so much faster that a lot of old software is unusable because its too fast. One of my favorite examples: Lego Island's driving mechanic is tied to frame rate, so on a modern machine tapping left or right will fling your car 90+ degrees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CmqbccCqI0

That's the Turbo button on older Intel machines, that could slow your processor roughly to the speed of a 8086.

I discovered this playing the old DOS RPG Drakkhen, where there was a tower with a shark in its moat, circling around. It would jump and eat your characters if they happened to cross the bridge at the wrong moment. The funny thing is its speed was based on the processor clock (the game was released in 1989) and if you played the game with a faster processor, the shark would be too fast to be avoided. Push the turbo button, reduce clock speed, problem solved.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#137

Post by rrwo »

lucideer wrote: post #25
rrwo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Using AJAX to hit internal APIs to load or update content improves performance of the site, and can make it easier to maintain.

This is what Twitter does. It's possibly the least performant major website I've used. Conditional loading certainly can improve perf. in theory. I've yet to see any evidence it does so in practice. The aggregate of bundle-size, bundle-parse, client-side execution resource-usage & added latency of the plethora of metadata normally bundled with API responses is more than enough to negate any actual perf. gains. As for…

Just because Twitter does that doesn't mean it is the case everywhere else.

It moves some of the rendering work from the backend (having to query the data and generate markup) to the browser (query the API and generate the content based on the responses).

At my current job, it's made a significant improvement. The server returns compact JSON data instead of HTML, so it's easier to generate the data and uses less bandwidth.

It also looks faster for the user, because they change search parameters and only part of the page changes, rather than reloading the entire page.

As for "easier to maintain", that may be subjective. Code to generate a simple HTML template from results is replaced by JavaScript code to hit the API and generate the DOM. Although HTML5 templates makes that much easier.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#138

Post by _notreallyme_ »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #70

I still use this strategy, though these days, I primarily use Mosaic and Netscape for testing. I tend to browse without JavaScript enabled, except for places I already trust to not abuse it. And if there is anything blocking me from accessing the page, such as a modal dialog, a cookie notice, a survey, a prompt to sign up for the newsletter, I close the tab. Over time, I have found that type of rude lack of considera…

Before closing the tab, I check if View -> Page Style -> No Style gives the text I was interested in reading. If i arrived on the page, chances are that there might be some information I'm looking for.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#139

Post by dr-detroit »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #70

I still use this strategy, though these days, I primarily use Mosaic and Netscape for testing. I tend to browse without JavaScript enabled, except for places I already trust to not abuse it. And if there is anything blocking me from accessing the page, such as a modal dialog, a cookie notice, a survey, a prompt to sign up for the newsletter, I close the tab. Over time, I have found that type of rude lack of considera…

No post body was provided.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#140

Post by ecmascript »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #3

My modern version of this is browsing with JavaScript disabled. Most of the sites that don’t work weren’t worth my time anyway.

Wow. I wonder how you use stuff like instant messaging, music streaming and so forward. Do you also skip all browser based desktop apps because you hate Javascript so much?

Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

Post reply on HN