Alex RussellAug 15, 2024

Your blog does not need frameworks built for SPAs.

Your e-commerce "experience" should be progressively enhanced (no, that does not mean "SSR+huge bundles")

Your news website is not "an app".

Part 3 of my series on how JavaScript fucked over US public benefits services is up, and includes a handy rubric for "should we React?"

https://infrequently.org/2024/08/caprock/

Reckoning: Part 3 — Caprock

I have worked with dozens of teams surprised to have found themselves in the JavaScript ditch. They all feel ashamed because they've been led to believe they're the first; that the technology is working fine for other folks. It isn't.

Alex Russell
Show threadSam
@slightlyoff kudos. I have built sites for CA government agencies without any JS in the browser. The irony is people questioning my skill level when I tell them I avoid using it because it’s almost never needed. So many people using JS to do what HTML and CSS do better.
Aug 16, 2024 at 3:52pmWeb
Show threadAlex RussellAug 16, 2024

@electranyx Interested on your feedback re: the recommendations I make in Part 4:

https://infrequently.org/2024/08/the-way-out/

Reckoning: Part 4 — The Way Out

JavaScript overindulgence remains an affirmative choice, no matter how hard industry 'thought leaders' gaslight us. Better is possible, but we must want it enough to put users ahead of our own interests.

Alex Russell
Show threadSamAug 19, 2024

@slightlyoff kudos. Well said. Backing you up…

The model should be skunk works. Make a standards compliant live demo of necessary functionality as fast as possible. Skin it with CSS. Present it and ask what’s missing. People won’t ask for animated buttons or scrolljacking. You are done!

Corruption is the key. You can make vast sums failing at an hourly task funded by taxpayers.

Work from the needs up, not the stack down. 99% of it can be done in free, open, well supported Wordpress.