Your Screen Versus Work of Art

NoScript Versus New Web Standards

Steve Smith explains why NoScript, ScriptSafe, Script Blocker, etc. is useful, and harmful to the work of art web developers create, at the same time.

Episode #6-21 released on February 7, 2016

Watch on Youtube

The Internet is full of web-sites that are designed to function in virtually any browser, platform, or device. This is made possible by standards that span all devices, platforms, and browsers, otherwise making a web-site simply work would be extremely complicated. This was once an issue when Internet Explorer 6 was being maintained by Microsoft for Businesses and other users using Windows XP which delayed the advent of mobile web-site design for most web-sites since making a web-site backwards compatible and fully compliant for Today's standards is hard work.

However, we are 2016, Internet Explorer is no longer a thing. We have Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, and a number of other browsers supporting the latest web standards.

The latest web standards are focused on a few client side technologies, most notably HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, JQuery, AJAX, XML, Angular, etc. Most of those technologies fall under the JavaScript standard, so when JavaScript is disabled, many web-sites do not behave as intended by the developer, but why? Isn't it possible to make web-sites that operate with or without JavaScript?

If you are designing the web-site to detect the device, and show the viewer an experience that tailors to the device they bring, maybe. While, it is definitely possible using server side variables, a lot of cool functionality are impossible without JavaScript. Ajax, which is based in JavaScript, allows for data to be pulled from XML or databases and inserted into the page as you scroll down on more modern web-sites. While, that is not the only function of AJAX, it is one that most people will recognize.

Another function from JavaScript required in my designs is the onload, mouseover, or onclick functions. This is where a page waits for environmental parameters to be activated, then a function is run in the JavaScript that coordinates with the user taken action. If you go to my own web-site, you can login, or search the web-site using special links that allow you to do so, but without JavaScript, both of those functions do not function, at all. On top of all this, the privacy notice that is shown at the top of the page when you'll first visit it, won't load.

Which brings me to an important thought, because of malware and viruses, we need Adblockers and programs like NoScript, but what if we could have a smarter version of those programs that allowed us to experience the Internet properly, and avoid getting infected. Is it even possible?

The answer is yes, actually. A lot of developers block entire sets of languages, but many probably have a limited understanding on what they are blocking. It is definitely possible to block a series of functions, and considering the language is composed of a set of pre-determined commands, we should have been able to conceive of a browser plugin that could block JavaScript, and all its sub languages from ever loading a file to begin with, especially executable file types. While, blocking all JavaScript, and other plugins is noble, it does show clear lack of understanding of how the Internet is meant to function. It is not for nothing that web-site developers spend hundreds of thousands of hours designing Interactive, real time web-sites that are, also, dynamic in the way they load. And, while many claim my screen, my experience, you are the one visiting a web-site created by a person who had a very specific vision for the site, and changing it, is like painting the Mona Lisa's hair blond, because that is what you prefer. Doesn't make sense to repaint the Mona Lisa a different color, so why would it make sense to break a web-sites original intended experience?

The Internet is full of web-sites that are designed to function in virtually any browser, platform, or device. This is made possible by standards that span all devices, platforms, and browsers, otherwise making a web-site simply work would be extremely complicated. This was once an issue when Internet Explorer 6 was being maintained by Microsoft for Businesses and other users using Windows XP which delayed the advent of mobile web-site design for most web-sites since making a web-site backwards compatible and fully compliant for Today's standards is hard work.

However, we are 2016, Internet Explorer is no longer a thing. We have Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, and a number of other browsers supporting the latest web standards.

The latest web standards are focused on a few client side technologies, most notably HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, JQuery, AJAX, XML, Angular, etc. Most of those technologies fall under the JavaScript standard, so when JavaScript is disabled, many web-sites do not behave as intended by the developer, but why? Isn't it possible to make web-sites that operate with or without JavaScript?

If you are designing the web-site to detect the device, and show the viewer an experience that tailors to the device they bring, maybe. While, it is definitely possible using server side variables, a lot of cool functionality are impossible without JavaScript. Ajax, which is based in JavaScript, allows for data to be pulled from XML or databases and inserted into the page as you scroll down on more modern web-sites. While, that is not the only function of AJAX, it is one that most people will recognize.

Another function from JavaScript required in my designs is the onload, mouseover, or onclick functions. This is where a page waits for environmental parameters to be activated, then a function is run in the JavaScript that coordinates with the user taken action. If you go to my own web-site, you can login, or search the web-site using special links that allow you to do so, but without JavaScript, both of those functions do not function, at all. On top of all this, the privacy notice that is shown at the top of the page when you'll first visit it, won't load.

Which brings me to an important thought, because of malware and viruses, we need Adblockers and programs like NoScript, but what if we could have a smarter version of those programs that allowed us to experience the Internet properly, and avoid getting infected. Is it even possible?

The answer is yes, actually. A lot of developers block entire sets of languages, but many probably have a limited understanding on what they are blocking. It is definitely possible to block a series of functions, and considering the language is composed of a set of pre-determined commands, we should have been able to conceive of a browser plugin that could block JavaScript, and all its sub languages from ever loading a file to begin with, especially executable file types. While, blocking all JavaScript, and other plugins is noble, it does show clear lack of understanding of how the Internet is meant to function. It is not for nothing that web-site developers spend hundreds of thousands of hours designing Interactive, real time web-sites that are, also, dynamic in the way they load. And, while many claim my screen, my experience, you are the one visiting a web-site created by a person who had a very specific vision for the site, and changing it, is like painting the Mona Lisa's hair blond, because that is what you prefer. Doesn't make sense to repaint the Mona Lisa a different color, so why would it make sense to break a web-sites original intended experience?

Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions

Community Comments

Share your thoughts, opinions and suggestions

Login or Register to post Your comment.