I am a bit on the edge whether or not I should not allow JS on my site at all. Is this too old fashioned?

Are there webmasters out there who stay away from javascript?

Hey, if JS is necessary, it does the job.

Javascript is a full fledged language that can do a lot to interact with your users pages.
True, it's difficult to be really cross platform and inobtrusive, and requires a lot of work, but it's great to have it working.

I, for one, like very much playing with javascript.

I'm currently in the orientation phase of web design.

So far, I have seen few websites I like that do not apply Javascript. It seems to be everywhere and great to enhance a site.

What I also heard a lot that Javascript is better to implement than something written in flash. That may or may not be true, but I repeatedly got this impression from my internet reading. I also read repeatedle that Flash is limiting regarding SEO (from the short stay on this forum I learned that there is a wide range of SEO, from real help to superstition and rip-off, and I am delaying judgement regarding this face or non-fact).

A site with a lot of photography/images seems to need Javascript (if it's not in Flash, and I have the impression from looking up photography websites, that Flash sites are a much, much less out there than it used to be a few years ago. I know several photographers that had a flash site before, and now have one in Javascript).

So, from my very limited experience I have the impression that Javascript (which seems to have more flavors than many icecream parlors) is important and its importance possibly rising.

Originally Posted by tripy

Javascript is a full fledged language that can do a lot to interact with your users pages.
True, it's difficult to be really cross platform and inobtrusive, and requires a lot of work, but it's great to have it working.

I, for one, like very much playing with javascript.

I never heard of those cross platform problems. (do you mean different browsers or different operating systems or different server software?)

Could you elaborate on that?

What would be the alternative to Javascript?

Would it be easier to write/maintain, this alternative, and why?

Thanks for not feeling cross-interrogated.

do you mean different browsers or different operating systems or different server software?

Javascript being a client side language, this has nothing to do with the server.
But the javascript implementation can differ greatly between 2 browsers.
Today, using DOM functions, you can abstract most of those differences, except for the events, where IE stills play the outsider, with a custom syntax and different events than all the other browsers.
http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/events/

If its a more simple, attractive, designers javascript you were after.

JQuery all the way.

The recommended practice with JavaScript is to make sure the basic functionality of your site works without it and then to progressively enhance any feature you want using JavaScript. The reason why this is recommended is because JavaScript isn't guaranteed to be on in absolutely every single browser. There are some users that don't like it and some browsers (many mobile browsers) don't support it. However, the vast majority of your users will probably have JavaScript enabled.

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

The recommended practice with JavaScript is to make sure the basic functionality of your site works without it and then to progressively enhance any feature you want using JavaScript. The reason why this is recommended is because JavaScript isn't guaranteed to be on in absolutely every single browser. There are some users that don't like it and some browsers (many mobile browsers) don't support it. However, the vast majority of your users will probably have JavaScript enabled.

I like the way you put that. Thank you.

I agree, VirtuosiMedia had a real nice way of explaining JavaScript and I use JavaScript myself.