In his JavaScript Will Save Us All presentation at An Event Apart San Francisco, Eric Meyer described the rapid advance of Javascript solutions online and their impact on standards development.
- he Web has won. It is shifting to become a true client-side computing platform. The key to this transition is Javascript.
- Previously, client-side computing was only enabled by plug-ins like Flash. Soon plug-ins will be replaced by scripts. Scripting can do everything plug-ins can do.
- Some exmaples: ie-7.js is Javascript code that makes Internet Explorer 6 run like a standards compliant browser. Customized fonts have been on the Web for years thanks to Javascript. Javascript is being used to render graphics in the browser (Bluff, Rapheal, Canvas)
- Processing is a graphic/visualization programming language that has been ported to Javascript. This literally means that support for a programming language has been created using Javascript (processing.js). Cappuccino is an open source framework for running Objective C in Web browsers using Javascript. Enables you to run desktop applications in the Web browser.
- For a long time, Maps were an example of why rich interactions would never work on the Web. Javascript in Google Maps changed that instantly.
- Mozilla Labs is working on Jetpack an API that allows you to script the browser itself.
- Browser Javascript engines have really been optimized. They are orders of magnitude faster then even two years ago.
- But we need to careful that an over-reliance on Javascript does not keep people out (accessibility concerns). HiJax provides non-Javascript fallbacks to things that require Javascript to work.
- We can actually use Javascript to make things more accessible. Example: use Javascript to make Flash video controls available in HTML.
- JQuery extensions can support CSS selectors, layout attributes, and more potential standards not yet implemented by browsers
- Ecsstender is a way to extend CSS. A Javascript framework for writing your own CSS stuff.
- Rather than wait for standards bodies and plug-in makers, we can expand microformats, CSS properties, creare new attributes, and more. These things can be done with Javascript.
- As a result, everyone can influence the future of the Web today.