6 ms·

With all the SPA out there I find it hard to believe we are building js-less websites today … maybe it’s a browser made to navigate the past and small blogs ?

GoblinSlayer 2y ago
I think a lot can work this way. Something is intentionally webapps, like google, those won't work, yes.
danlitt 2y ago
In my experience, missing out on SPAs is not a particularly extreme hardship.
- hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
  I mean, as long as you don’t mind not being able to access the vast majority of published content, news and social media, that is.
  - MrVandemar 2y ago
    News? Tripe riddled with advertising and tracking. Social Media? Opium for the masses. "Content"? Increasingly consists of ChatGPT regurgitant. I don't see any loss of value there.
    - GoblinSlayer 2y ago
      IME news sites are noscript compatible. The only exception is forbes. Oh and advertising doesn't work without scripts.
    - hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
      Sure, but you’re disconnecting from the things that other people use, you’ll become a social outcast as a result. I’d that’s something you’re personally okay with that’s fine, but humans generally want to fit in and be part of a society of likeminded peers.
- mrweasel 2y ago
  There's a few weird ones. I worked with a company that has what in my mind should be a static website, but it's not. It's headless Wordpress, with a Next.js frontend. It's just an informational websites, like what they do, contact information, services offered and a "blog", which is just one or two article published per month. The bloody thing is a single page app, routing is done in Javascript, rendering is Javascript... I don't understand it at all. It's a type of page that needs no Javascript at all, and yet it's built entirely as a Javascript frontend.
  - MrVandemar 2y ago
    > I don't understand it at all. It's a type of page that needs no Javascript at all, and yet it's built entirely as a Javascript frontend. Likely the solution was driven by the developer, not the needs of the people wanting that information, or the needs of the business. I would hazard a guess that the author of the site either only knew one way to make a site, or they wanted to learn how to make a site that way, possibly as a portfolio piece.
    - bdangubic 2y ago
      not sure about the size of this company but I have been involved in more than a few where tech used to build websites, regardless of what they are, is set in stone. “we use angular.” there are no discussions or anything. people are interchangeable and frequently move from project to project - no problem, angular everywhere :)
  - pabs3 2y ago
    My guess is developers don't know how to write HTML any more, only JavaScript.
- GoblinSlayer 2y ago
  For me it's banks and maps.
  - bazzargh 2y ago
    telnet mapscii.me :)
    - teddyh 2y ago
      Cool, but: • No option for alternate character aspect ratios; what if your characters are square, like an 8×8 font? • They are using a quite old database dump of OpenStreetMap. • No option to jump directly to a coordinate and zoom level.
      - bazzargh 2y ago
        while I was joking, the code behind that can be run locally: https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii ... it supports pointing at any public or private vector tile server, and does support supplying a starting coordinate and zoom. There is even a bug report explaining how to hack it for different font aspect ratios. https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii/issues/26 https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii/issues/26 Realistically, it's not practical, but then, is a map? When I want to know where something is, the map lets you calculate "how far away is it and how do I get there? what's nearby?" at a glance, but you can query those things directly in OSM data (there's a cli for that too). For actual maps, I have several GPS devices and...a map. It folds up.
marginalia_nu 2y ago
A lot of apparent SPAs also offer a simple server side rendered version of the website for search engines and AI agents. You can for example read medium articles just fine with w3m.
jezek2 2y ago
There is a plan for using CEF engine for a specific tab or website. The user would be able to make the website work with a single click and it would remember it. You would still have the advantage of a lightweight browser just in a lesser degree.

GoblinSlayer 2y ago

I think a lot can work this way. Something is intentionally webapps, like google, those won't work, yes.

danlitt 2y ago

In my experience, missing out on SPAs is not a particularly extreme hardship.

hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
I mean, as long as you don’t mind not being able to access the vast majority of published content, news and social media, that is.
- MrVandemar 2y ago
  News? Tripe riddled with advertising and tracking. Social Media? Opium for the masses. "Content"? Increasingly consists of ChatGPT regurgitant. I don't see any loss of value there.
  - GoblinSlayer 2y ago
    IME news sites are noscript compatible. The only exception is forbes. Oh and advertising doesn't work without scripts.
  - hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
    Sure, but you’re disconnecting from the things that other people use, you’ll become a social outcast as a result. I’d that’s something you’re personally okay with that’s fine, but humans generally want to fit in and be part of a society of likeminded peers.
mrweasel 2y ago
There's a few weird ones. I worked with a company that has what in my mind should be a static website, but it's not. It's headless Wordpress, with a Next.js frontend. It's just an informational websites, like what they do, contact information, services offered and a "blog", which is just one or two article published per month. The bloody thing is a single page app, routing is done in Javascript, rendering is Javascript... I don't understand it at all. It's a type of page that needs no Javascript at all, and yet it's built entirely as a Javascript frontend.
- MrVandemar 2y ago
  > I don't understand it at all. It's a type of page that needs no Javascript at all, and yet it's built entirely as a Javascript frontend. Likely the solution was driven by the developer, not the needs of the people wanting that information, or the needs of the business. I would hazard a guess that the author of the site either only knew one way to make a site, or they wanted to learn how to make a site that way, possibly as a portfolio piece.
  - bdangubic 2y ago
    not sure about the size of this company but I have been involved in more than a few where tech used to build websites, regardless of what they are, is set in stone. “we use angular.” there are no discussions or anything. people are interchangeable and frequently move from project to project - no problem, angular everywhere :)
- pabs3 2y ago
  My guess is developers don't know how to write HTML any more, only JavaScript.
GoblinSlayer 2y ago
For me it's banks and maps.
- bazzargh 2y ago
  telnet mapscii.me :)
  - teddyh 2y ago
    Cool, but: • No option for alternate character aspect ratios; what if your characters are square, like an 8×8 font? • They are using a quite old database dump of OpenStreetMap. • No option to jump directly to a coordinate and zoom level.
    - bazzargh 2y ago
      while I was joking, the code behind that can be run locally: https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii ... it supports pointing at any public or private vector tile server, and does support supplying a starting coordinate and zoom. There is even a bug report explaining how to hack it for different font aspect ratios. https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii/issues/26 https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii/issues/26 Realistically, it's not practical, but then, is a map? When I want to know where something is, the map lets you calculate "how far away is it and how do I get there? what's nearby?" at a glance, but you can query those things directly in OSM data (there's a cli for that too). For actual maps, I have several GPS devices and...a map. It folds up.

marginalia_nu 2y ago

A lot of apparent SPAs also offer a simple server side rendered version of the website for search engines and AI agents. You can for example read medium articles just fine with w3m.

jezek2 2y ago

There is a plan for using CEF engine for a specific tab or website. The user would be able to make the website work with a single click and it would remember it. You would still have the advantage of a lightweight browser just in a lesser degree.