Fix the web and look good doing it
The web is drowning in JavaScript, and the vibe is that there will be more. Also, happy birthday MDN, and how to look good in your middle age 😎.
xx Chinch
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JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress)
This issue mentions another article that calls for a wider return to semantic markup. But what was responsible for breaking markup to such an extent in the first place? Suspect number 1, JavaScript.
Why Did a $10 Billion Startup Let Me Vibe-Code for Them and Why Did I Love It?
An awful lot bothered me about this article. That so many “tech journalists” don’t actually know how to code. That a company is so happy to shove so much bloat into its products. The Stockholm syndrome-esque way so many engineers are gladly handing their futures over to AI. And that the entire article felt like sponsored content anyway. Notion only just added the feature to work offline for web’s sake! Maybe someone could have vibe coded that? Anyway, I’ll get my coat and go and shout at some clouds.
‘What the hell should I wear?’ The style challenges of a fortysomething man
The past few months were the first time in my life when I truly felt as middle-aged as I am. So much in the world no longer makes sense to me, and fashion is naturally one of those. I pride myself on taking a certain care of my appearance, generally wearing a shirt and well-fitting clothing, but I also know that that in itself is an old-fashioned opinion of “good style”. A lot of men in their late 30s onwards give up on looking good, and I was pleased to read something that encouraged men going through a certain phase of life to try a little harder and what might work, albeit in a rather British sense of style.
Why semantic HTML still matters
Unfortunately, the push for semantic HTML (marking areas of the page as their role) and the rise of dynamic web frameworks followed roughly the same timeline. While many of these frameworks offer good developer experience (though that is also questionable), often what they output to the browser is a sea of nested DIV tags, creating heavy, non-accessible and brittle markup. With the rise of Vibe coding, this is only set to get worse. So fly a flag for markup that’s light and accessible for everyone!
Celebrating 20 years of MDN | MDN Blog
Much of this issue stems from the fact that the modern internet is flawed. An example of something on the internet that has worked for a long time, and hopefully continues to work, is the Mozilla Developer Network. Happy birthday, MDN!
