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Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

smashingmagazine.com

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Re: Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

#2

Post by staticelf »

I like that he offers solutions but honestly, more people are vision impaired than have javascript disabled so instead of doing all that work instead put it first on helping people with disabilities.

> There is a danger that more and more sites will require JavaScript to render any content at all. What danger, exactly? While some sites that don't require a lot of js is nice you will soon notice that many sites you want js on. Music streaming services is one example.

I build api based sites nowdays because of mainly two reasons:

1. They feel more rapid after initial load and gives the user a better experience.

2. You can use the same api for web and mobile experiences.

I personally think that WebAssembly is the future so the web will finally just be another compilation target and I can't wait for it to be wide spread.

Re: Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

#4

Post by natbobc »

jakecopp wrote: post #3

Install uBlock Origin and do it every day! I block all JavaScript, then re enable it when needed to fix a site. Often I just need to enable 1st party scripts in the uBlock Origin grid to fix it. Make sure you enable advanced mode to see the grid.

Will need to look at that! I've disabled JS ever since the spectre/meltdown CVE announcement and only enabled it for a select few sites. Now if I hit a SPA site I just close the browser tab unless it's something I really need and want. It's ludicrous how many "doc" and "brochure" sites aren't functional w/out JS enabled.

Re: Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

#7

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

jakecopp wrote: post #3

Install uBlock Origin and do it every day! I block all JavaScript, then re enable it when needed to fix a site. Often I just need to enable 1st party scripts in the uBlock Origin grid to fix it. Make sure you enable advanced mode to see the grid.

Or install uMatrix alongside uBO.

Having just one is certainly less hassle, but uMatrix gives more granular control over what's allowed by the first/third party domains than uBO's advanced mode.

Re: Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

#8

Post by everdev »

Back in 2006/7 I remember we'd use "progressive enhancement" to make a site work without JavaScript and then add JavaScript enhancements for those who had JS enabled.

At some point (maybe after the popularity of Google Maps?) nobody wanted progressive enhancement and it was totally cool to just ignore users who had JS turned off. It made web app development so much easier, but probably less user friendly.

It feels like JS is a hammer to fix the nail of the page reload. I always thought it was too bad that browsers choose to show the blank page instead of sending the request and just rendering the difference themselves.

Re: Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

#9

Post by rhacker »

The referenced site BlockMetry.com doesn't seem to go into how it calculated 0.2% as having JS disabled. Especially since it references Tor traffic as a high percentage my guess is that each connection was coming into the site with different fully-wiped Http connections basically disabling tracking. Alternatively what percentage of that traffic is simply cache bots for search engines, etc...

Re: Using the Web for a Day with JavaScript Turned Off

#10

Post by pkhagah »

jakecopp wrote: post #3

Install uBlock Origin and do it every day! I block all JavaScript, then re enable it when needed to fix a site. Often I just need to enable 1st party scripts in the uBlock Origin grid to fix it. Make sure you enable advanced mode to see the grid.

Same here. In addition, if I think I will visit certain website only once, I open it in private mode and disable umatrix for all domains in the site for a quick view.
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