THE STATE OF THE WEB
CHRIS HEILMANN (@CODEPO8), WEB ON THE EDGE, HELSINKI, SEPTEMBER 2015

WEB DEVELOPMENT
WAS A LOT ABOUT
GAPS…

CONSIDER THIS
SIMPLE, SENSIBLE
MARKUP…

…AND THE MESS
THAT INTERNET
EXPLORER 6 AND 7
MADE OF IT.

FIXES WERE
PLENTIFUL…

AND VERY SPECIFIC
TO THE BROWSER’S
ISSUES…

ALL OF THESE WERE
SOLUTIONS.
BUT THEY FELT BAD.

WRITE EXTRA MARKUP TO
WORK AROUND THE ISSUES
OF THE PARSER?

RELY ON HACKS THAT
EXPLOIT KNOWN PROBLEMS
IN THE CSS PARSER OF THE
OFFENDING BROWSER?

RELY ON KNOWN BUGS IN
THE CSS PARSER?

CREATE A DEDICATED STYLE
SHEET WITH ALL THE QUIRKS
IN THEM - ONE FOR EACH
OFFENDING BROWSER

FIND A SOLUTION AND
ENSURE THAT ONLY THE
PROBLEMATIC BROWSERS
GET IT?

STOP TRYING TO SOLVE THE
PROBLEM OF BROWSER
CREATORS AND FEED BACK
ISSUES SO THAT BROWSERS
CAN IMPROVE?

EXCEPT, BACK THEN
THERE WERE NO
FEEDBACK CHANNELS.

SO WE DID THE NEXT
BEST THING.
WE WROTE
ABSTRACTIONS TO
FIX BROWSER ISSUES
FOR US.

NO WAITING FOR
BROWSERS - LET’S
INNOVATE AND BUILD
THE THINGS WE WANT!

BROWSERS WILL CATCH
UP AND WE CAN REMOVE
OUR ABSTRACTIONS…

…EXCEPT, WE NEVER DO.

AT EVENTS, WE TALK
ABOUT AMAZING
SOLUTIONS BUT
SOMEHOW, IT FEELS
WE’RE NOT HAVING
AN EFFECT…

A LOT IS NOT
WORKING THE WAY
IT SHOULD…

🕗15 SECONDS

🕗15 SECONDS
http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2015/09/08/deja-vu-all-over-again/
THE TIME WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR
THE AVERAGE PAGE TO FULLY
LOAD…

http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2015/09/08/deja-vu-all-over-again/
THAT’S A PRETTY
TERRIBLE STATE OF
THE WEB.
• The median page’s time to interact
is 5.5 seconds, and fully loads in just
over 15 seconds.
• The median page is 2MB in size and
contains 170 resources
• Most sites fail to take advantage of
core image optimisation techniques

AND SO NOT UNCOMMON…

WELL, I AGREE…

HUGE, INDEED…
http://www.apple.com/ipad-air/

HUGE, INDEED…
http://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/

WHAT TO DO?

WE HAVE THE
TECHNOLOGY!
WE CAN PATCH IT!

WE HAVE THE
TECHNOLOGY!
WE CAN REBUILD IT!
https://instantarticles.fb.com/
Facebook: Instant Articles

WE HAVE THE
TECHNOLOGY!
WE CAN REBUILD IT!
https://www.ampproject.org/
Google:Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

WE HAVE THE
TECHNOLOGY!
WE CAN REBUILD IT!
https://www.apple.com/news/
Apple News

OPEN, BUT KIND OF CLOSED…

WE’RE NOT APPLYING TECHNOLOGY
IN A WEB FRIENDLY FORMAT…

WHAT DOES THIS CODE DO?

JAVASCRIPT ABUSE IS
RAMPANT…

3MB OF BLOCKING
JAVASCRIPT BEFORE
THE FIRST WORD
APPEARS ON THE
PAGE!

WHAT THE HELL
HAPPENED HERE?

WHOSE FAULT IS
THIS?

PRETTY MUCH
OURS…
• Web development is still governed
by looks alone
• Clients still expect web sites to work
the same on every browser and
platform
• Quick delivery trumps quality and
release processes
• We’re asked to make things work
and fix them later - but there never
is a later.

A LOT OF OUR
INNOVATION AND
EASY TO USE
SOLUTIONS FEEL LIKE
PURE ESCAPISM…

I’M NOT SAYING
THERE SHOULD BE
NO INNOVATION…

IT IS JUST NOT
EVERYBODY’S
RESPONSIBILITY.
SOME OF US COULD
CONCENTRATE ON
KEEPING THE WEB A SOLID
FOUNDATION.

WE GET HIGH ON
TECHNICAL
SOLUTIONS THAT
GET INCREASINGLY
COMPLEX.
http://ashleynolan.co.uk/blog/frontend-tooling-survey-2015-results

THIS IS NOT AN OLD
MAN OF THE WEB
RANTING…
(WELL, NOT EXCLUSIVELY)

LATELY I WORKED
EXCLUSIVELY IN
FIXING ONE MASSIVE
ISSUE OF THE WEB…

WE REMOVED ALL
THE THINGS THE
WEB SUFFERED
FROM…
✘ VML
✘ attachEvent()
✘ currentStyle
✘ X-UA-Compatible (render modes)
✘ IE Layout Quirks
✘ VBScript
✘ Conditional Comments
✘ MS-Prefixed Events

WE REALISED YOU
CAN’T BREAK THE
WEB OVER NIGHT… :(

WE LEARNED THAT THERE ARE MANY WEBS…

before
after
before
after
-webkit-appearance: none -webkit-gradient
…AND THAT EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES DON’T DIE

EDUCATING IS A
TOUGH JOB…
http://dev.modern.ie/tools/staticscan/
https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/static-code-scan

THE BIGGEST
CULPRITS WE
FOUND…
✘ Aggressive browser sniffing
independent of version number
✘ Outdated libraries and polyfills -
some of them clashing with new
language features
✘ A lack of packaging and
dependency loading solutions -
dozens of JS files = no inlining
possible
✘ If it works on Safari iOS, that’s
what matters - no matter what
the spec says…

FIXING THE BROWSER SHOWED US HOW BROKEN THE WEB IS

WE HAVE WORKING COMMUNICATION
CHANNELS BETWEEN BROWSER MAKERS AND
DEVELOPERS…

LET’S USE THEM
PROPERLY.
HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED
WORKING FOR BROWSER
CREATORS
✓ It is a constant race not to break the
web - every mistake web developers
make needs to get catered for.
✓ The pressure is immense. Instead of
pushing for an interoperable web,
browsers are constantly compared and
expected to be different.
✓ When implementing standards, we
find a lot of problems and feed them
back. That’s why a score of 100% in
feature tests makes no sense.
✓ Most speed increases are based on
analysing and fixing developer
mistakes/sloppiness.

SO HERE IS MY PLEA
TO HELP WITH
BETTER SOLUTIONS
FOR EVERYONE…

STOP TELLING
PEOPLE ON THE
WEB THAT THERE
ARE DOZENS OF
SOLUTIONS THAT
MAGICALLY FIX ALL
THEIR ISSUES…

STOP CATERING TO
OLD BROWSERS.
GIVE THEM BASIC, WORKING
SOLUTIONS AND ENHANCE
USING FEATURE DETECTION.

EXPLAIN, DON’T
MAKE IT FASTER AND
EASIER!

SHOW THE DANGERS
OF QUICK SOLUTIONS.

KEEP THINGS ACCESSIBLE
FOR EVERYONE.
THERE IS NO TECHNICAL
BASELINE!

SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU CAN FIX ANYTHING WITH
JAVASCRIPT DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD!

LET’S COLLECTIVELY
CALM DOWN!

WE’RE NOT IN A
HEALTHY STATE
RIGHT NOW AS A
COMMUNITY…
✘ We build to impress each other - the
people who need our solutions never
see them.
✘ We feel rushed and not good enough
- all the time.
✘ We feel innovation is going too slow
whilst not recognising when something
got fixed we wanted oh so much when
it was the hot thing to demand.

THE FIRST STEP TO
HAPPINESS IS TO
MAKE IT HAPPEN…

THE FIRST STEP TO
HAPPINESS IS TO
MAKE IT HAPPEN…
✓ Improve your basic skills, catch up on
what’s possible. caniuse.com is a
riveting read!
✓ Start helping people who are not here
and don’t follow hackernews. You start
teaching and you end up learning.
✓ Report problems, demand support for
basic features, not only for the hot,
new (half-baked) ones.
✓ Reach out beyond our echo chamber
if you want to reach people who need
the knowledge you have.

THANK YOU!
CHRIS HEILMANN
@CODEPO8