Is support for users who do not use Javascript running out?

Question

Yes, obviously it’s important, but I see many sites that simply nay work if Javascript is turned off. It’s more for curiosity, but nowadays it’s almost mandatory to use Javascript on a large site, so the habit of "support for users who don’t have it" is over? Examples of sites that do not work with Javasript turned off:

• http://www.tecmundo.com.br/
• http://unfold.no/
• http://www.shibui.me/web/scroll/index.html
• http://www.supremo.tv/

Of course everything depends on the type of site that is being developed, but I refer to new sites that use various beautiful effects like Parallax, libraries like Bootstrap and jQuery, etc. In particular One Page sites, which use and abuse Javascript, having fantastic results. So in the development of these sites, this question is left aside?

Answer 1

Javascript, over the years, has become much sought after, having given rise to a whole universe of frameworks with which the Internet today seems not to survive.

Brendan Eich was the creator of the Javascript language in 1995, later the founder of the Mozilla universe, which a few versions ago, in its product Firefox version 23 removed the option to turn off Javascript.

Given that the Mozilla people is a reference in relation to the Internet, use and productivity under it, and given the fact that they have removed the option to turn off Javascript, I would say yes, that personal support (users) without Javascript will end!

Javascript, an option ?

The web does not run without HTML, but any other multimedia content or language on the client side has always been optional: Javascript, CSS, Images, Video, etc.

The point is that nowadays, with the demand of the target audience constantly increasing, with all the demand for dynamism and real-time operations, the constant attempt to "abolish" the boring of page-refresh, it becomes difficult for any professional in the field to satisfy the current market without Javascript.

Not even CSS 2.1 is good for most jobs, so imagine a page without CSS!

The same goes for Javascript:

• Real time data validations;
• Visual effects;
• Timers;
• Dynamic content;
• Additional layers of protection in applications;

And many other practical applications that make Javascript indispensable in modern times, make it no longer an option but a necessity.

This is an acquired fact under which browser providers work to improve and tend, like Mozilla, to evolve rather than stagnate.

Javascript, have a future ?

Who remembers having work in Flash knows that change is inevitable and that from today to tomorrow there is something new, improved that replaces what we are used to.

Flash was a fashion, for years the sites were developed in flash, the Flash itself grew, was improved and became the indispensable tool. Today, HTML5 does what Flash did more simply, more effectively and with fewer compatibility issues and without requiring plugins.

Javascript will reach the stage where the Flash is today, dead in the water! For now, it is a language full of life and future, but with HTML5 and CSS3, much of the need for Javascript has disappeared, at some point it will also disappear.

Ex.:

Check if a given field in a form is empty:

<form name="meuFormulario" method="post">
  Pergunta: <input name="question" />
  <br />
  <input onclick="return IsEmpty();" type="submit" value="Adicionar Pergunta" />
</form>

Javascript

function IsEmpty(){
  if(document.forms['meuFormulario'].question.value == "")
  {
    alert("vazio");
    return false;
  }
    return true;
}

HTML5

Just add the attribute required to our field, and the navigator takes care of the rest!

Progressive Enhancement

The technique is based on a simple principle, create something solid and functional, and then apply a whole layer of extra features that may or may not be used, if the necessary support for them is available.

None of the above paragraph checks on most websites or online platforms today. All you’re looking for is to do it right, fast and modern because half a year from now it’s to erase and do something new!

• Browsers advance from version to version so fast that when I do an update I already go 3 or 4 versions ago;
• Technologies change in such a way that the best solution we have today, a month from now is a "crime" use.
• I do a job today, half a year from now the client wants something new, totally different.

But what is more important: Go forward or waste an infinite amount of time ensuring that a small minority who insists on not moving forward can see what the others who have moved forward are seeing?

that is to say

Work with current technology, among which Javascript or continue to waste an infinite time for garântir who uses Internet Explorer 7 with Javascript off will be able to use Sopt ?

I would say yes, that personal support (users) without Javascript will end!

Answer 2

It all depends on the requirement of such users: if there is pressure for websites to work without Javascript, there will still be websites that work without Javascript. If there isn’t, there won’t be...

I would say that the vast majority of people do not give a damn about it (or even know it exists!). But there’s an expressive group that cares - be "fanatics" for free software that don’t want non-free code running on your machine, be "paranoid" for security they don’t want arbitrary code running on their machine, be ordinary people full of so much propaganda they prefer selectively enable Javascript but keep it off by default (category in which I include myself¹).

Individuals and private companies have complete freedom to ignore these groups - usually too small to make a significant difference in their pockets. Official government websites, for example, may be required by law to keep certain services accessible if they are under sufficient pressure to do so. It’s the same case of sites that only worked on IE or programs that only worked on Windows - people complained so much that today the situation is already quite different (the program to make Income Tax declaration, for example, is cross-Platform; and many banks have specific "security modules" for IE - via Activex - and for the rest - via Java). If similar pressure exists for certain sites to work without Javascript, there will be no alternative but to do so².

But for the vast majority of applications, I agree with the arguments of Zuul - you expect a lot more from a site today than simply reading static information and occasionally posting something. So that the use of Javascript will become more and more pervasive. Unless of course someone invents a engine more versatile than a browser - perhaps even making the browsers obsolete (difficult but possible - the HTTP protocol was designed so that clients - or User Agents - evolved independently from servers, and vice versa). That allows you to do 95% of what current sites do, but in a purely declarative way, without needing arbitrary [executable] code. Hard to imagine these days, but all technologies disruptive begin like this... ;)

---

_{1. Seriously! Try browsing 1 month with Noscript on and then go back to the way it was before. You can’t handle... The Internet gets literally more beautiful with Noscript!}

_{2. And there are more important reasons than avoiding ads to disable Javascript, especially on websites coming from (s) government(s)...}