should you develop using javascript or not
I was browsing Hacker News It basically boils down that around 2% of all users disable javascript for their browsing.
I am under the personal belief that it is a a waste of time to worry about the small percentage of users who disable javascript. If I have a website I'm developing, I'm going to use the tools that make it easier for me to develop my application and get it delivered to the greatest number of users. Javascript enables you as a developer to make many things simpler and easier for the user (the most basic of which is saving the user time by detecting required elements in forms without having to wait for a response from the server).
Many of the Hacker News comments indicate that you are a lazy developer if you don't program your site to handle disabled javascript users gracefully. I disagree with this sentiment. If 2% of users disable javascript, that is a small percentage of users being impacted. In addition, I believe that the MAJORITY of users who do this are not the 'typical' users of websites. The typical user, in my opinion, doesn't give a crap if your website uses javascript or python or ruby or java or anything technical related at all. What they care about is a good user experience, something worth their time being on the website, and it makes them want to come back for more. Having javascript on the site is a technical issue, not a user issue.
This, to me, is just another issue blown into a bigger issue by a vocal minority. I, as a web developer, will listen to my users. If a large enough number of people write me or leave comments on the site, indicating they would prefer a non-javascript version of the site, I would absolutely listen to them. However, spending valuable time developing something that only a small percentage care about, and that small percentage has a viable workaround, I will instead invest my time in developing more features or creating a better user experience for the remaining majority of my users.
If you don't like it, you can always go read your Facebook account (oh, wait.. you can't, because Facebook requires javascript to be enabled...)
-- Michael