[Theoleff]

The interesting part here isn’t “no JavaScript”, it’s that HTML already covers more use cases than people remember (forms, dialogs, validation, navigation).

I ran into this repeatedly while writing my book "You Don’t Need JavaScript"[0]: most JS in these cases isn’t adding capability, it’s compensating for forgotten platform features.

[0] https://theosoti.com/you-dont-need-js/

[danieloj]

Agreed! I assume the reason for the forgetting of the features is that at least some were poorly supported when first released so developers create workarounds that then become the de facto standard.

It has been amazing to see the speed up in release and support of new CSS features over the last couple of years! Even the masonry layout has finally reached an experimental stage

[Theoleff]

Yup, at this point it feels more like habit than necessity. People learned to build things like dropdowns in JavaScript years ago, so they keep doing it that way.

A lot of devs simply don’t look any further when it comes to what HTML and CSS already provide.

[shimman]

Very interesting book! These are the types of programming books I wish that were more abundant rather than "Learn X framework/language," those that solve/discuss interesting problems. Just bought a copy.

[kitd]

Indeed the "Learn X" books may even have a vested interest in not revealing rarely used features, so that you learn to reimplement them in X.

[Theoleff]

Thank you, it means a lot!

I originally started writing it because I was tired of books becoming obsolete every two years while the underlying problems stayed the same.