Why would one want to write a website entirely in Javascript?

[Frankie]

Hi,

If you look at the source code of https://www.mindlab.be, you'll see that it's written entirely in Javascript. Why would one want that, and what are the downsides of it?

[coothead]

If you look at the source code of https://www.mindlab.be,
you'll see that it's written entirely in Javascript. Why would one
want that, and what are the downsides of it?

Dumb-arsed stupidity is the first thing that comes to mind.

1. A blank page will be offered to those. with JavaScript disabled.
2. It is wasted on those who have absolutely no reasion whatsoever
   to look for it.
3. Those who do have reasons to look at it, will simply right click
   "Inspect" anywhere on the page to view it in it's entirety.

coothead

[deathshadow]

It's called client side rendering and is typically done in cases where the content is highly interactable and accessibility doesn't matter. An example of it done where it makes sense would be Google maps.

An example of it being done where it makes no sense and was chosen by people unqualified to make websites would be the one you linked to. It is painfully apparent the clowns who made that site have no business working in web development; from the illegible colour contrasts, pixel metric design, gibberish to nonexistent semantics in the scripting generated DOM, DIV soupe and presentational classes, and it being a scripting only solution on pages that don't warrant it.

The accessibility failings alone probably doubles their bounce. I know that for me as a user that site would be effectively useless.

The ignorance, incompetence, and ineptitude -- the 3i of web development -- being proven by the 4.7 megabytes of JavaScript doing the job of probably not even 10k of HTML's flipping job. The pinnacle of /FAIL/ at basic web development.

[c1lonewolf]

Without wanting to start any arguments here, the simple answer is that they don't know any better and they don't care. It's all about having a web presence. Something, anything on the internet. It's what everyone is taught these days. Plus that's the beauty of the web, you don't have to know, understand or even care about accessibility like Shadow does or even understand HTML, CSS, Javascript or the like, you just sling things together using whatever you can find and post it to the web. While it may go against the rules some people have of what should be placed on the internet it still remains inline with one of the creator's fundamental requirements which is to allow anyone of practically any age to format a document for the web. Not just the highly educated people, but anyone including children, which is who are building most of the websites out there today.

The down side - This is what twenty plus years of teaching BS has done. Just imagine what it's going to take to fix all that!!

[Frankie]

Upon further examination with Developer Tools, I saw by the last two divs who have a class 'ReactModalPortal', that it's written in/with React. But if baffles me why they did that in this case, it being a normal website. 🤨 Thanks for the reactions, folks.

[vipulgupta]

JavaScript is a text-based programming language used on both the client and server sides to make web pages interactive. Although HTML and CSS provide structure and design to web pages, the language provides interactive components that interest users.

JavaScript is commonly used in everyday applications such as the Amazon search box, a news recap video embedded in The New York Times, and refreshing your Twitter feed.

JavaScript has applications in web-based apps and web browsers. Yet, JavaScript is utilized outside of the Web in software, servers, and embedded hardware controllers. It helps add interactive behavior to web pages.

Apart from the endless possibilities, there are other reasons why web developers prefer JavaScript over alternative programming languages:

• JavaScript is the web browser's only programming language.
• It is the most widely used programming language.
• To begin, there is a low entry point.

[coothead]

Hi there vipulgupta,

unfortunately, your post is really not relevant to the O.P.'s question.

Why would one want to write a website entirely in Javascript?

The basic answer, of course, is that one would not..

coothead

[josephm]

There are cases where you would need to use javascript to do the presentation. For example, using websocket or socket.io. Lets say you have a chat application that connects to the server using websocket, you cannot navigate to another page as you would loose the connection. You would need javascript to present new informations to the user instead of navigating to another page.

Lets say you don't want screen scrapers to see the information you present. Screen scrappers extract the information from the source of the web page. Anything you present using javascript will not be seen by the scrapper. Of course, search engine spiders will also not see those informations.

[deathshadow]

it being a normal website.

That right there is the core of my disgust, but it happens a lot because some people learn something like React, and then throw it at everything as the answer to every problem.

We don't teach fundamentals, accessibility, or even the most basic concepts of what HTML even exists to do before people just start -- as C1LoneWolf put it -- "slinging things together".

And it's what leads to lawsuits, lost sales, bounce, and more than half the people out there claiming to be web development "experts" being little more than charlatans.

[deathshadow]

JavaScript is a text-based programming language used on both the client and server sides to make web pages interactive. Although HTML and CSS provide structure and design to web pages, the language provides interactive components that interest users

That has to be the most "This is a bot using ChatGPT to make fake posts" post I've seen yet. Entirely accurate, utterly unrelated to the actual question, and completely vapid riddled with feel-good hippy-dippy market-speak double-talk.