[TriLUG] Javascript.. why?

[Maxwell Spangler]

A question to the full time web developers out there:  Why so much
Javascript on web pages these days?

I'm running into a lot of web pages that won't do much or do much
correctly without Javascript enabled.  I'm noticing this because I've
started using the NoScript extension to Firefox which blocks Javascript
calls on a per-site basis by default  Enabling them per site, per script
source is not a problem.  This experience has been a great way to
observe how much of various sites are relying on javascript to do
complex things as well as simple things.

So if anyone cares to comment, I'd love to hear some examples of how web
design has changed in the past few years to use more javascript.  I
think, for example, I'm seeing much more layout work in js and wondering
why that's not better in css?

cheers,

-- 
Maxwell Spangler
Research Triangle Park, NC, USA