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This also has the distinct advantage that it will give non-visual users a working site in most cases without you having to code for their browsers separately.
– Austin Hemmelgarn
Commented Nov 21, 2022 at 12:47
1

I realize this goes beyond the scope of a retro-computing question, but this answer begs the question, "If you initially serve 'old' HTML by default, and you assume the browser doesn't support javascript, then how would the page 'enrich itself' on more capable browsers? Is this a matter of sending the javascript and 'seeing what happens'?
– Geo...
Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 15:14
@Geo... that’s how HTML + JS was used back in the day (I did lots of HTML + JS development in the early 2000s). You’d have a complete HTML page with CSS, and references to JS; if the JS loaded, it would enrich HTML controls and provide additional behaviour (up to and including full-blown AJAX). The whole thing (HTML, CSS, JS) had to be written carefully so that it would be compatible with the desired target browsers, which could be painful, but it was doable.
– Stephen Kitt
Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 15:37
@Geo... that’s also some of the thinking, at least for some developers, behind modern HTML5 + CSS; it’s possible to build highly interactive web pages using only HTML and CSS, and then if necessary, more complex behaviours can be implemented on top in JS.
– Stephen Kitt
Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 15:39
@StephenKitt, thanks for the explanation. I was doing desktop applications during that time period so I missed all the fun associated with early web development. I remember trying to build a page (as an experiment, maybe 1997-ish) that would receive a live-feed of data from my server and refresh/update content before (I think) AJAX was a thing (I might have just been ignorant of AJAX)... After some trial and error, jiggery-pokery, a few iframes, etc... I got it sort of working, but it was at that moment I decided web development was not for me. :-)
– Geo...
Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 16:01

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