The pre-JavaScript era
There are plenty of things in our life today that we couldn’t imagine our life without, but there was a time (even if it’s hard to believe) when the world was a very different place. A time when phones had buttons, when looking things up needed a library card, when writing messages involved pen and paper and yes, a time when websites didn’t have JavaScript.
Primitive times, when outlaws roamed the countryside and…well, actually it wasn’t that long ago and it turns out we did survive through it.
Here are a couple of website from the P.J.S. (Pre-JavaScript) era. Aliweb or Archie Like Indexing for the Web is one of the very first search engines. A fact attested by the prehistoric look of it.
Here’s WestNet, an Internet provider, founded in 1994.
IFINDIT, another sort of search engine, back in 1995.
These are just a few example of websites from way back then in the 90'. Just to put things a bit in perspective, this was before looking things up on the Internet was synonymous with Googling. This was before Google. Yes, that long ago.
But a time without JavaScript is not just a time when things looked less, aahm, pleasant or visually appealing. JavaScript didn’t just make things prettier, it made things more accessible and user friendly. If you were to through a user from 2016 back in time, all the way to the early 90’ and have him goo..ah, look something up on the Internet, you would collect enough swear words to fill up a search engine.
Do websites without JavaScript work?
Of course. Well, actually it depends on your definition of “works”. Most websites today use JavaScript to a certain degree and a few, like the ones mentioned above (some of them are still live) work without JavaScript, because nobody used JS when building them. We don’t need to go as far back as the 90’to see visually unappealing websites (from a 2016 perspective). Check out Youtube in 2005:
So is JavaScript just makeup to make websites pretty? No. You can use your browser without JavaScript right now to see how would your online world look like. You can disable it your browser to experience a JavaScript world, but..well..
Here’s Facebook. Not a bright start right?
Twitter just redirects to a mobile page that sort of works, and Gmail tells me that..
“JavaScript must be enabled in order for you to use Gmail in standard view. However, it seems JavaScript is either disabled or not supported by your browser. To use standard view, enable JavaScript by changing your browser options, then try again.
To use Gmail’s basic HTML view, which does not require JavaScript.
If you want to view Gmail on a mobile phone or similar device”
If I want to use it I get a basic HTML + CSS page, which feels and works oddly for me. But it works. Google Maps on the other hand looks quite uncooperative without JavaScript.
“When you have eliminated the JavaScript whatever remains must be an empty page.”
All websites in the pre-JS era worked without JavaScript. Yes they were a bit more rudimentary and slow, but they worked. Even some websites today work without JavaScript, but the whole purpose of creating JavaScript was to make the web a better place. A more accessible, user friendly place. Functional and visually appealing. Modern if you will.
Post-JavaScript
You can create a working webpage with just HTML and CSS, but you do need JavaScript to be able to create a website that is meant to be used by users, not just showcased. Every website needs at least one snippet of JavaScript for Google Analytics so you will be using JavaScript nonetheless.
Thinking about the bottom line, about the user experience you have to take into consideration the need for JavaScript. It can bring a website to life through animations and it can offer a few practical necessities, like mobile/desktop detection and a good and usable comment section.
Without JS you will have a very basic but functional website with very limited possibilities. Websites like these still exist today, and some people still promote the non-JavaScript way to surface the Internet, but I think we’ve moved past that as a way of development. Every website you will work on will have at least a few lines of JavaScript in it, this is our way now.
