@daringfireball It’s interesting to imagine how the consumer-grade Internet would have evolved without a scripting language in general-purpose web browsers.

Dynamic content delivered over the web can be a good thing. And, dare I say, inevitable. If we weren’t using our browsers for it, how would it work? Would every web app be something like a self-contained Hypercard stack?

As always, the devil’s in the details. HTML is a very democratizing medium. Javascript is less so, but it is still accessible if you put in the work. Would a world of standalone web-connected runtimes be similarly accessible? Would it be a security nightmare (a bunch of packaged Flash apps)? It’s an open question whether we’d want to trade the world we’ve got for that one.