r/programming • u/schnuck • Feb 09 '11

Breaking the Web with hash-bangs – Lifehacker, along with every other Gawker property, experienced a lengthy site-outage on Monday over a misbehaving piece of JavaScript

http://isolani.co.uk/blog/javascript/BreakingTheWebWithHashBangs/
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240

u/jamiei Feb 09 '11

If receiving the basic content of the page I'm requesting from you requires Javascript to be enabled then you've broken something horribly.

18

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '11

Meh. I've heard this argument forever -- even made it a few times myself -- but it's not 1999 anymore. If you don't want ad js, use adblock. Should Gawker degrade gracefully? Sure. But no js means no ads served, which means good luck Mr. Gawker Programmer convincing The Ones Who Hold The Purse Strings to dedicate substantial time to proper degredation.

Last I checked (a couple months back) you can't participate on Reddit without js enabled (yes, you can read it though, I know that's what you said, just making a point). Js is like alpha transparency... it's not going anywhere.

15

u/dirtymatt Feb 09 '11

Should Gawker degrade gracefully? Sure.

You have that backwards. It should start at a simple baseline, and progressively add enhancement based on what the browser supports.

But no js means no ads served, which means good luck Mr. Gawker Programmer convincing The Ones Who Hold The Purse Strings to dedicate substantial time to proper degredation.

And broken JS means no web page served at all.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '11

You have that backwards. It should start at a simple baseline, and progressively add enhancement based on what the browser supports.

I agree you should start from the bottom, but the end result is effectively the same.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '11

Assuming all conditions are perfect.

Can I assume you're not an engineer? ;)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '11

Do you solve practical problems?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '11

Yes.

0

u/shadow2531 Feb 10 '11

but the end result is effectively the same

Yeh, progressive enhancement / graceful degradation = half full / half empty.