There is a debate at work right now. Granted, it is a bit ideological, but it is one of those classic web developer debates we feel compelled to return to every couple of years:

Should we expect our users to have JavaScript enabled?

Perhaps more importantly, what should we do when they don’t?

Ever since Google Maps ripped open the possibilities of web-based development (with turn-by-turn directions no less), we have been stuck with this bizarre requirement: JavaScript. Sure, it makes the web go round, but I still have nightmares of trying to get the University of Utah labs to upgrade to Flash v7, and our web analytics show a stunningly high level of Netscape v4.

Right now I am building a fancy fan-dangled address widget for the Association (as fancy as an address widget can be), but through this process am also authoring/encoding into existence a fairly large number of front-end standards for our new Java/Spring architecture. Of course we are required to have some “lo-fi” version of what ever Dojo-steroided-monster I create, but when I ask my peers what possible message I could place between some <noscript> tags, they typically respond with a string of expletives.

Leave it to my colleague Patrick to find the perfect solution: A gentle message from mibbit that gets right to the point.

I kid you not. They are that awesome. I would tell you to go check it out yourself, but you would have to disable your JavaScript to see the message and I don’t want to be responsible for any more frogs. Consider this a public service.