Hacker News Reader

Comment by dec0dedab0de | Hacker News Reader

Yes, it really has been downhill since then. I wish js apps just had their own protocol and port. js://js.server.tld could open up your js browser and you could use that when it was something you needed. Then you could just trust browsing around the normal web, knowing its just documents.

View on HN

I completely agree. I've seen similar ideas get shot down here on HN; but I think we need two separate protocols. One for purely documents, and a second for the universal application platform.

Among other implications, it should be much easier for regular people to create content, and applications should be free of the document-focused legacy.

If we did that, how would you propose implementing upvoting in HN without js?

Upvoting in HN works without JS already, it just has a page refresh.

And it doesn't even need a page refresh; it could use a 204 No Content response. Potentially an yet-cleverer static browser system could also use 206 Partial Content to replace a portion of the page.

But at that point, it's no longer "purely a document," it's still an app, just one that runs entirely on the server instead of partly or mostly in the browser.

For the web to be just documents, you have to go all the way and remove state entirely. Idempotence all the way down.

So how about Gopher for documents, and HTTP(S)+HTML+CSS for apps? I think we have the tools already.

I am hoping that http2 crap protocol will attract all the ecommerce nasties and leave http as the obvious choice for static documents.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com