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Progressive Enhancement is Dead, Long Live Prog...

tomdale
September 25, 2015

Progressive Enhancement is Dead, Long Live Progressive Enhancement

Some say that using a JavaScript framework means sacrificing core web principles—universal access, graceful degradation—in exchange for developer convenience. Are JavaScript peddlers like me the Pied Pipers of doom, leading the community astray from web righteousness? Let’s look at why devs are drawn to the benefits of JS frameworks—and discuss whether the rampant hand-wringing about progressive enhancement is deserved or a relic from an older age.

tomdale

September 25, 2015
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  1. Pages that are empty without JS: dead to history (archive-

    org), unreliable for search results (despite any search engine claims of JS support, check it yourself), and thus ignorable. No need to waste time reading or responding. Because in 10 years nothing you built today that depends on JS for the content will be available, visible, or archived anywhere on the web. All your fancy front-end-JS-required frameworks are dead to history, a mere evolutionary blip in web app development practices. Perhaps they provided interesting ephemeral prototypes, nothing more.
  2. • Works offline • No page reloads (great for e.g.

    music players) • Fast • Rich interaction • Access to device features (camera, storage, GPS)
  3. Over the next few years almost all of the people

    who don't yet have a phone will get one, and almost all of the phones on earth will become smartphones. A decade ago some of that was subject to debate - today it isn't. What all those people pay for data, and how they charge their phones, may be a challenge, but the smartphone itself is close to a universal product for humanity - the first the tech industry has ever had.
  4. When you have a supercomputer in your pocket, but intermittent

    connectivity, the ability to work OFFLINE is the key to ubiquity
  5. HTML + HTTP + maybe JS client-side JavaScript progressive enhancement

    JavaScript slow devices, good network fast devices, bad network technology best for
  6. AND the age of the slow, incapable device is coming

    to an end BUT connectivity remains imperfect, even in developed countries IF progressive enhancement is about preserving the ubiquity of the web
  7. Progressive Enhancement • Works if JavaScript fails to load •

    Easier to archive and index • Faster initial load times
  8. • Smartphones are eating the world • Connectivity is the

    weak link, even in developed countries • JavaScript frameworks are taking over, for good reasons