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The problem with javascript is not just abuse, it's overuse. There are countless websites which have no dynamic content and yet choose to require javascript to

The problem with javascript is not just abuse, it's overuse. There are countless websites which have no dynamic content and yet choose to require javascript to function. The other major problem is the vulnerabilities you open yourself up to by allowing javascript to run in your browser. 99.9% of the time it's simply not worth it for me, and I wish I could say "no thank you" to all those sites that use it but don't actually need it to deliver all their static content. Even many of the sites that deliver dynamic content via javascript could probably have been designed to work just fine without it, but no, companies just have to have their tracking and serve up all their ads via JS.

userbinator 6y ago
Even many of the sites that deliver dynamic content via javascript could probably have been designed to work just fine without it, but no, companies just have to have their tracking and serve up all their ads via JS. Two noteworthy examples on this are Twitter and YouTube, especially in their latest designs. 99% of their functionality could be accomplished without any JS, and thus be accessible from a very wide range of browsers, but they've turned into horribly wasteful SPAs that now require an extremely recent browser and accompanying dependent software --- and hardware --- to access. IMHO it's a huge waste of resources, and it's time this endless churn was put to a stop.
- corty 6y ago
  SPAs like you described are the coal rollers of the software world. Kill the environment and fry your users laps, just because you can, not for any sensible reason. We need much more naming and shaming of this practice. Software needs to be more responsible with regards to the resources it consumes, especially if it does so without any apparent neccessity.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    If all the processing were on the server, this cost would be appropriately measured and monitored. Because it's on the client, and diffused over all users, it's essentially free to the producer, and hence gets much, much worse. As a good example, I remember how Facebook became much, much slower for me post React. This then spread across the web, leading to much pain for a really large amount of users, but counterbalanced by much pleasure for developers. It's funny how that worked out.
- addicted 6y ago
  All of that “could be” achieved by hand rolling Assembler code for your servers as well. Whether something is possible is not a reasonable standard to judge by.

userbinator 6y ago

Even many of the sites that deliver dynamic content via javascript could probably have been designed to work just fine without it, but no, companies just have to have their tracking and serve up all their ads via JS. Two noteworthy examples on this are Twitter and YouTube, especially in their latest designs. 99% of their functionality could be accomplished without any JS, and thus be accessible from a very wide range of browsers, but they've turned into horribly wasteful SPAs that now require an extremely recent browser and accompanying dependent software --- and hardware --- to access. IMHO it's a huge waste of resources, and it's time this endless churn was put to a stop.

corty 6y ago
SPAs like you described are the coal rollers of the software world. Kill the environment and fry your users laps, just because you can, not for any sensible reason. We need much more naming and shaming of this practice. Software needs to be more responsible with regards to the resources it consumes, especially if it does so without any apparent neccessity.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  If all the processing were on the server, this cost would be appropriately measured and monitored. Because it's on the client, and diffused over all users, it's essentially free to the producer, and hence gets much, much worse. As a good example, I remember how Facebook became much, much slower for me post React. This then spread across the web, leading to much pain for a really large amount of users, but counterbalanced by much pleasure for developers. It's funny how that worked out.
addicted 6y ago
All of that “could be” achieved by hand rolling Assembler code for your servers as well. Whether something is possible is not a reasonable standard to judge by.