Why Browsers Get Built

This post is an edited and expanded version of a now-mangled Mastodon thread. Platforms Are Competitions ...and We're Losing Win Condition You Do It To Yourself, And That's What Really Hurts Groundhog Day Reboot Some in the JavaScript community imagine that I harbour an irrational dislike of their tools when, in fact, I want nothing more than to...

Other posts in the series: Reckoning: Part 3 — Caprock Reckoning: Part 2 — Object Lesson Reckoning: Part 1 — The Landscape Frontend took ill with a bad case of JavaScript fever at the worst possible moment. The predictable consequence is a web that feels terrible most of the time, resulting in low and falling use of the web on...

Other posts in the series include: Reckoning: Part 2 — Object Lesson Reckoning: Part 1 — The Landscape Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified when new installments go live. Complexity Perplexity Carrying Capacity Should This Be An SPA? The Pits Aftermath Last time, we looked at how JavaScript-based web development compounded serving errors on...

Other posts in the series include: Reckoning: Part 2 — Object Lesson Reckoning: Part 1 — The Landscape Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified when new installments go live. --> The Golden Wait The Truth Is In The Trace Zip It Near Peers Blimey JavaScript Masshattery Maryland Enters The Chat Chatanooga Chug Chug SNAP? In Jersey? Fuhgeddaboudit...

Instead of an omnibus mega-post, this investigation into how JavaScript-first frontend culture broke US public services will be released in four parts. To catch them as they come out, subscribe to the RSS feed. When you live in the shadow of a slow-moving crisis, it's natural to tell people about it. At volume. Doubly so when engineers can...