No, not in every case can they be built without JavaScript. That's an insane statement to make.
Example: Build a usable decent image editor that allows you to preview your changes without the page refreshing or redownload an entirely new image (therefore using even more data).
Example 2: Make a playable 3D game
Example 3: Make a spreadsheet web app
The list goes on. Some things can of course be done without JavaScript but tons of ideas would not only be infeasible to develop, they'd be a usability nightmare.
Nobody said anything about “every case”, but I’m here to tell you that most webapps can be written without it. How do you think webapps were written before React came along?
I do it every day, and there’s absolutely no reason that progressive enhancement should be ignored today, except that fromt-end devs have forgotten how.
You implied "every case" when not addressing the list of web apps, while also rejecting my premise that there is a distinction between "websites" and "web apps" by stating:
> Webapps can be implemented just fine without Javascript; I’ve been doing it for years.
You never addressed any of the examples, so I don't see why it's wrong to assume you believe that the listed applications can be implemented, in the browser, without JavaScript.
You flat out rejected the idea.
> How do you think webapps were written before React came along?
Jquery / Prototype / ExtJS, and others where written in Flash or Java.
I think it's fine to want parts of the internet to work without JavaScript or having any programming language involved. I highly suggest you checkout IPLD[0]. I've always thought that having a graph browser, much like the original intent of www may of been when Tim Berners-Lee wrote the original web browser.
It would be fascinating if the entire internet functioned as workers extending the graph that is the internet. Web applications adding to the graph, while web browser, walked through it. There is a lot to be imagined. I think there is room for both applications and data to exists together.
Why do you want any of those things to run inside a browser? Those all sound like great candidates for being actual installed software. Do we even remember how to write that?
This everything-is-a-website mentality is a disaster for privacy, security, and the future of decentralized general-purpose computing.
Both Java and C# tried to break the web (silverlight and Java FX) and both ended up being considerable failures.
We still don't have a reasonably easy way to write cross-platform applications (Mac/Win/Lin/Phone) in a native-first language. The reason JS has taken off is because it filled a rather HUGE hole.
If there is a chance that is changing, let us know, but right now, the hole isn't being filled with anything else.
JavaFX is a GUI toolkit. It does allow the use of CSS for design, but is nothing like silver light, flash, etc. It's not mean to run in a browser at all. You probably meant Java applets?
> Why do you want any of those things to run inside a browser? Those all sound like great candidates for being actual installed software.
The point is to remove the need to install things.
> security
An image editor that runs entirely in the browser and only has sandboxed access to open and save dialogs is more secure by miles than running a random .msi installer.
Example: Build a usable decent image editor that allows you to preview your changes without the page refreshing or redownload an entirely new image (therefore using even more data).
Example 2: Make a playable 3D game
Example 3: Make a spreadsheet web app
The list goes on. Some things can of course be done without JavaScript but tons of ideas would not only be infeasible to develop, they'd be a usability nightmare.