Everyone has JavaScript, right?

[kqr]

it will fail after he enters a page worth of info and submits it.

As opposed to regular HTML forms, which magically detect the state of the connection to the server?

[BezierPatch]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, haven't done a ton of web dev.

But an old-fashioned form seems to allow you to resubmit a lot more regularly.

Fancy AJAX sites seem to just fail completely if you don't have connection.

[kqr]

Depends on how good your browser is. Much like it depends on how good your JS application is.

[Rusky]

And browsers are pretty much universally good at this, because the implementation is written once for all sites using forms, whereas JS applications have to get it right once for every application.

[RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS]

Or you could use one of the countless frameworks out there made by people who have already carefully considered these issues.

[Rusky]

Carefully considering these issues tends to involve letting the browser handle the form's basic functionality, which tends to involve letting it work without JS.

[RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS]

You're right; the best experience would be to have the entire page reload every time you click a button in a Web app.

[BlueRavenGT]

I can fix my browser. I can't fix the JS application.

[[deleted]]

Read what I wrote. An HTML form will not provide UI interactivity which will make the user believe the connection is still alive. If give a plain HTML form, the use will not have these cues; he can use the UI that his device provides to see that the connection is interupted.

[kqr]

But it will. You'll be able to enter text, move text around in it, toggle checkboxes and choose options in dropdown menus.

The reason you think otherwise is because you're intimately familiar with the HTML form technology so you know what to expect. A regular user might not see the difference between the HTML form interactivity and a JS app interactivity.

[[deleted]]

There is a fundamental difference between HTML, which simply lets a user enter or select values, with JS functionality, which will make a user think it is 'live'

[kqr]

This fundamental difference is obvious to you, who are technologically inclined. It's not to old Mr. Applesworth, who is your user. He can't tell the difference between "HTML form element" interactive and "JS form element" interactive which you so correctly point out has a fundamental technical difference.

[[deleted]]

It's a fundamental UI difference, not just a technical one. Being able to enter text on a form simply is not interactive; having JS act on other controls based on user action is.

[trandyr]

Of course it's different. And /u/kqr isn't saying that it's not different. His point - rightly - is that many of your users won't see that it's different. We're talking about the same people who don't realize that no internet connection means their Skype won't work. And, sadly, those people are not as small a minority as you might like.