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Comment by aaaaaaaaaaa1234 | Hacker News Reader

Can you provide an example of a useful web-based activity that can't be done without javascript, other than web-based games?

I've seen a huge number of sites over the years stop working because they redesign to incorporate javascript; yet, when I visit them at work (with a javascript-enabled browser) their shiny new site doesn't actually have any new features.

Things that don't need javascript:

--Form verification (you should always be doing this on the server, and optionally in client-side javascript)

--<video> tag

--Popup site menus

--Web-based chat

--Webmail

--Message board comments (unless you locked yourself into Disqus)

--Nearly everything

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AJAX?

Not having to render and reload an entire page every time something changes or a request is made is actually quite useful. Load balancing is one of the reasons js-based templates are so popular.

Also I believe there are aspects of cross-browser compatibility related to mobile design and responsive design which depend on javascript, though I may be mostly wrong.

Yes, AJAX does require javascript, but the features provided by AJAX can also be provided by a plain form. You click the "submit" button, the javascript intercepts it, it launches the AJAX server request, and it writes the result onto the page. Without javascript, you click submit, it goes back to the server, and the server returns a page with the result.

Yes, but the usefulness i'm talking about is being able to get a response without re-rendering and fetching the entire page. If the difference between the two is just a small amount of text then doing it asynchronously is faster and more efficient.

Although, if you're just dealing with purely static html pages then I would agree AJAX is pointless. But not everything useful about javascript has to be useful just to the end user.

Yeah and the web doesn't need CSS either.... Come on this is ridiculous, web-based chat? Webmail? I can't imagine using those without JS. So the user is supposed to refresh the webpage constantly to see if they got a new chat/email?

>So the user is supposed to refresh the webpage constantly to see if they got a new chat/email?

I remember web chatrooms working that way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, or maybe they had meta-tags that refreshed the page periodically.

http://safe-mail.net/ has a good javascript-free webmail interface. Remember to select the "fast (no scripts or icons)" interface when you sign in.

Why did you need to create a throwaway account for this comment?

I don't maintain a regular account. I mostly lurk, but comment occasionally. When I do, I can't remember my previous username.

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