Notices tagged with javascript

Come on #Tidelift, do you really need to serve #Javascript from 12 third-party domains? Surely static HTML/CSS is all you need for this simple brochureware web page, for example:
https://tidelift.com/about/careers

@xj9
> my view of the future of computer: https://xj9.io/posts/2019/programming-for-the-next-billion/

A lot to agree with here. One thing that's missing though. The layer of software users interact with directly, is often *not* built by a software engineer, but by a graphic designer. Most #Javascript, for example. Moving this into user control, wherever possible, and putting the rest in the hands of competent engineers (paid or unpaid), would be a net improvement for all 3 groups.

@badrihippo there's sites out there that do nothing with #Javascript disabled, and crash my browser if I let them run their woefully overengineered scripts. If I need or want to browse them anyway, something like Browsh seems ideal.

the-federation.info is working for me now. Anyone want to help @jaywink with administrating and improving the site? Would be great to have a graceful fallback for visitors not using client-side #Javascript.

Today, in #IronyNews, a startup is offering services for managing the way website users give consent for cookies ... via third-party #Javascript:
https://www.cookielaw.org/

#FacePalm

@christianbundy
> I've been developing an #SSB front-end without any browser #javascript

Fantastic! Link please!

@alcinnz @clacke

Wow. The #UX of the new Titter web UI is really bad! Just as well #Nitter.net is available for those who just want to read the posts, instead of running huge chunks of proprietary #Javascript.

@openrisk
> You could imagine servers being pure data API endpoints and the GUI being handled locally

For sure. I touched on another way to think about it here:
https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/103791277016958320

What it comes down to is that #Javascript is an excellent way for newbie developers to make their code run on other people's computers without having to pass any of the security review it would require to be installed natively. Which is exactly as bad as it sounds ;)
@clacke

A lot of the problems caused by #Javascript, from invasions of privacy to crashing browser, would be solved if web browsers disabled scripts from third-party domain by default. They could pop up a scary warning on websites that use them (akin to #HTTPS error warnings), asking if they ought to let the third-party scripts run. That would heavily discourage web developers from lazily using third-party resources when they don't really need to.

"There's also a more subtle effect of this performance loss: waste of electricity. Regardless of how fast your computer is, making it work harder makes it eat more electricity. So #JavaScript code is both increasing energy costs and contributing to #ClimateChange. You can see this for yourself by measuring how long your laptop battery lasts with and without JavaScript turned on in your browser."
https://onpon4.github.io/articles/kill-js.html

#MakeJavascriptOptional

Here's an excellent flow chart laying out the many reasons why over-use of #Javascript in websites is a bad idea, even for serving users who don't habitually block some or all JS:
https://kryogenix.org/code/browser/everyonehasjs.html

#MakeJavascriptOptional

@clacke what makes things even more complicated, is that when services are delivered via #Javascript running in a web browser, the software *is* running on your own computer - using your own computing resources - but you still don't have any power to inspect it or modify it. Stallman identified this:
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html

... but others have taken the analysis further:
https://onpon4.github.io/articles/kill-js.html

@dansup does it still display something legible with #Javascript turned off? AFAIK #PixelFed is still one of the few fediverse apps to do JS-free landing pages for both instances and the project homepage.
#MakeJavascriptOptional!