Subject: bug#69132: [ELPA] Remove jQuery from elpa.gnu.org

From: Richard Stallman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2024 22:13:47 -0500

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  > > There are two fully moral ways to implement a search feature for a web
  > > site.  One is to implement it inside the web server.  The other is to
  > > communicate with a free program that the user has installed in per
  > > computer, and could replace with any other.

  > In this case, both options would be overkill.

Do you mean, they would be more complex than is _technically_
necessary?  I believe you, but this issue is about a choice that is
mainly moral, not technical.  This moral issue is about showing
leadership in avoiding Javascript (even free Javascript) when that is
possible.

  >   The search functionality
  > does little more than just hiding a few elements from a table.  In
  > practice, it don't offer much more than using the built-in C-f search
  > functionality, that every browser provides.

That browser feature does not use Javascript sent by the server.  All
of the code for the browser search feature is installed by the user,
who can choose which browser version to install.  So it does not raise
this moral issue at all.

Do you see why Javascript raises a distinct moral issue?

  > We should be talking about the same code; I am not sure what you mean by
  > instructing users to install the code themselves?  Are you talking about
  > user-scripts?

Yes, that's the term I should have used.  Thanks.

This issue is about who controls what code you run -- not about what
the code _does_.  The Javascript code, sent by the web site, gives
that site control.  The very same code, installed by the user, does
not.

But if the code is simple, perhaps the API is not worth the trouble.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)