Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 17 submissions in the queue.

An Open Letter to Web Developers

posted by martyb on Friday March 20 2020, @08:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the Do-No-Evil-Poof!-Gone. dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Moonchild, the lead developer of the Pale Moon browser writes:

"Dear Web Developer(s),

While, as a software developer ourselves, we understand very well that new features are exciting to use and integrate into your work, we ask that you please consider not adopting Google WebComponents in your designs. This is especially important if you are a web developer creating frameworks for websites to use.
With Google WebComponents here we mean the use of CustomElements and Shadow DOM, especially when used in combination, and in dynamically created document structures (e.g. using module loading/unloading and/or slotted elements).

Why is this important?

For several reasons, but primarily because it completely goes against the traditional structure of the web being an open and accessible place that isn't inherently locked down to opaque structures or a single client. WebComponents used "in full" (i.e. dynamically) inherently creates complex web page structures that cannot be saved, archived or even displayed outside of the designated targeted browsers (primarily Google Chrome).
One could even say that this is setting the web up for becoming fully content-controlled."

https://about.google/: "Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"

Useful to... whom?

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
An Open Letter to Web Developers | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 68 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday March 21 2020, @01:28PM (1 child)

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Saturday March 21 2020, @01:28PM (#973815) Homepage Journal

    I guess most of today's web devs, and Google coders, aren't old enough to remember back when sites had stupid warnings like "Best if viewed in Internet Explorer" when Microsoft decided to add its own gizmos to HTML. I joked on my site "Best if viewed in the other browser".

    I found that I could make my site do Microsoft stuff in Netscape without Microsoft's proprietary nonsense.

    Hey, developers: If you don't stick to standards, you're stupid, and Google is stupid for foisting this nonsense on us.

    --
    Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @07:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @07:59PM (#973908)

    ..remember back when sites had stupid warnings like "Best if viewed in Internet Explorer"

    Ah yes...I remember someone once asked me to rewrite our site (hosted on an old Sun 3/60 at the time) to 'take advantage of the extra features that IE offered'....so I made liberal use of the <marquee> tag...every word scrolling in different directions...

    He never specified that it had to be readable in IE..