Stop pushing the web forward

It's not that simple.

1. The spec died, because it didn't get two independent implementations.

Everyone merely wrapped sqlite, which meant sites could rely on being bug-compatible with all the sqlite weirdnesses (e.g. column type "floating point" parses as integer column type), and making any future upgrades or fixes of sqlite a Web-wide version of pain of upgrading IE6 used for an intranet site.

2. IndexedDB API is a pain to use, because it's designed to be used directly. In the spirit of extensible web manifesto, it's a low-level primitive for JS libraries to build convenient higher-level abstractions on top of.

It's like an "assembly" of storage. It's supposed to enable building higher-level databases on top, so you can have SQL or NoSQL with whatever dialect you want, without burdening the platform with it. Use Dexie, localForage, ydn or such.

Who's "we"? I know it's a blog and he's probably just going for a colloquial tone, but I always find this notion of some great big web development community weird. The web is countless tribes with differing goals, and if your call is to non-action all you're really doing is leaving the future to those that act.

One thing I do to try to slow down the rate of change on the web is to upgrade my browser less often than most people.

Specifically, I use Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR).

Mozilla resisted providing this "update channel" (Firefox ESR) for years, but eventually yielded to the desires of large IT departments. Despite Mozilla's writing that "Firefox ESR is meant for organizations", with only one or 2 minor problems (with plugins IIRC), which I easily solved by upgrading temporarily to Firefox's normal ("release") "update channel", I've used it personally for years.

Below is a link to the best page I've been able to find to download Firefox ESR, but note that both version 31esr and version 38esr are available from the page below. Version 31esr is still supported with security patches and is what I have been using. It is my understanding that before it stops getting security patches, version 31esr will automatically upgrade itself to version 38esr.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/?q=e...

I'll make the opinion purely from a self-interested developer standpoint:

I'd rather push the web forward and have it at least stay "somewhat" close to native (no it'll never be better) and constantly learn new features... rather than:

.... have it lag behind native even more and thus create even more pressure on myself, my company, and my career to adopt, learn, and build native alongside web.

With all that said, I really do hope the OP was saying all he had to say in jest. It seems ridiculous that one person should have any expectation they (no matter how well known they are to the community) can stand up in a crowd of 7 billion people and say "hold on, let's stop and think about what we're doing". This assumes all 7 billion (or even most of them) are not thinking before doing, or can't possibly be certain about what they're doing without express written consent of OP.

Just because one person can't possibly keep up with all that is happening in the world doesn't mean everyone should feel obligated to stop to allow them to catch up.

OP also seems to imply it'll be near impossible to reverse out of what is going into the web, no matter how good or bad those decisions are. I think it's a bad assumption. Things will continue to move forward. Whether that means one company or two decide to take two steps back is another question, but in general the web will (and should) continue moving forward. It's a great idea to have "web as platform", and not "web as html and links".

Please web, don't change direction of your thinking. You're on the right track. We just need some relatively minor architectural changes to make it go more smoothly for more people out here doing what we're doing.