any page will have dozens of connections even without javascript. For pictures, for CSS, etc. What we need to do is fix the bugs in the netork code so it works reliably. Not try to avoid doing HTTP in a web bowser by disabling javascript.
Note that there are other valid reasons for disabling javascript, if you don’t want to download and execute random code from the internets on your computer. But it is not related to the stability of the browser in current WebKit builds, which I rarely saw crash on Javascript problems (it did happen on older versions).
I think that Web+ could be more usable, in the interim, before all the bugs are fixed, for certain sites, if there were a switch for turning javascript off. All the browsers have this, even on Windows. Another benefit of running w/o javascript is that pages load a lot faster. Most forums (but not this one) work just as well with or w/o js. Ninety percent of the ad-pages come in through javascript. That’s the main reason the connection count drops w/o js.
I currently do a “ps, kill xxx” for Web+ threads at least once in every session. If I could reduce that level a little bit, I’d be happier with the browser.
I agree with Ron on this. I run without JS whenever I can. It’s one main reason I still have NetPositive as one of my main browsers (!). On sites it can handle it is way faster than anything JS-enabled. On BeZilla and (Linux) FireFox I always use “NoScript” and just enable the sites that are essential for functioning (which does not usually include googleadservices…!) I’d be really happy in W+ had this facility too.
Yes, I often use NetSurf on Haiku. I’d guess that its lack of javascript means it rarely hangs even though it’s subject to the same network stack idiosyncracies as Web+. TBH, I just downloaded a newer Haiku nightly, and Web+ does seem to have improved over what it was six months ago.
A quick google search points me to some conversation about turning javascript off in WebKit:
