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Comment by csours | Hacker News Reader

Ok, I'll bite; How would you do Google Maps without JavaScript. (or DDG Maps if you prefer)

Edit: Why downvotes?

The interface would be slightly different but there's no reason why an interactive map viewer couldn't be done in pure HTML and CSS without JS, and then JS added for more enhancements like AJAX loading.

In fact... it's been done eight years ago:

http://www.appelsiini.net/2008/google-maps-without-javascrip...

Look at where the map images are coming from, copy the link, and play around with the URL parameters. Yes, this still works.

I also distinctly remember playing some HTML adventure games with similar pan/zoom/click interfaces before the millenium, and they didn't require JS either (nor took quite as long as the apps of today to load, on hardware that was probably an order of magnitude or more less powerful.)

Quite a few Javascript fanboys downvoting me but let me tell you the truth, users don't care about animated page transitions or whatever. Just want to read the article or buy the product or whatever. Javascript does nothing for them, never did, just developers with too much time on their hands is all.

Users definitely care about scroll-to-zoom and drag-to-move. At least this one does.

Also: auto-complete

Google Maps is a wrong example. It's a (basic) web application, i.e. what is generally an interactive program that happens to be rendered in the browser. It's obvious that most web applications need JS on, because they're literally made of JavaScript.

Web sites, however, don't need almost any JavaScript to work. 90% of it is either unnecessary design that distracts and confuses users, or actively user-hostile scripts (ad popups, trackers, interfaces designed to trick you into buying stuff, etc.).

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