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As much as I would love to see websites working without JavaScript, that ship sailed years ago. What I call HTML fundamentalists - those who believe that conten
by xiaq 8y ago
As much as I would love to see websites working without JavaScript, that ship sailed years ago. What I call HTML fundamentalists - those who believe that content should be in HTML and JavaScript are for interactive features only - make up a very small niche nowadays, even among the more tech-savvy audience. Unless the intended audience is likely to contain HTML fundamentalists, it doesn't really make much sense for web designers today to consider how to make a website that works without JavaScript.
I am not implying any contempt towards HTML fundamentalists. A website I made (https://elv.sh https://elv.sh) works without JavaScript, precisely because the ratio of HTML fundamentalists among shell users is likely non-negligible :) It evens works with w3m, for that matter. The "terminal screenshots" are actually just text and they show up in their full glory in w3m.
I don't understand your complaint about the "preloader". It is a placeholder while the website is fetching images in the background, and, assuming that it is implemented correctly, it does not add any latency. Without the "preloaders" the images are not going to show up immediately, you will just see a blank page or partially blank page. The preloader gives you some idea that the website itself can be reached and I think it is a nice interactive feature.
- codedokode 8y agoI don't think so. There are cases when SPA provides better user experience (apps that work offline, complicated editors, endless feeds with images, like buttons and comments) but if you need to display text with images, using SPA (and writing two applications) is an overengineering, making a complex solution instead of simpler one. Server-generated HTML is not an outdated technology. > I don't understand your complaint about the "preloader". It makes page load seem slower. Browsers can display HTML progressively even if it is not completely loaded, but preloader makes the user wait until all the resources are fetched. This is effectively discarding all the improvements browsers implemented for faster page rendering. Also it is annoying to see a blank page when you navigate back and forward.
- bpicolo 8y ago> It makes page load seem slower Only because in this case, the website is actually quite slow under load. Triggering a full browser page load would seem even more slow.
- xiaq 8y agoI don't dispute your principles. I do also believe that the benefits you argue for are likely marginal for much of the intended audience.