Don't expect that I will run your program
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[Published 2023-02-11]

A lot of web developers make a serious mistake; they make the website
content dependent on one specific program that everyone has to run in
order to access the content.  I'm not talking about the web browser
but about the code often written in Javascript that comes with the
page and that I'm expected to automatically run on my computer when I
visit that page.

Everyone should have the freedom to choose what code they run on their
computer.  You may say that if I don't want to run your script I can
visit another website instead but the problem with that is that then I
don't get the same content.  The content is not interchangeable.  Your
website may contain information that I need to get and giving up my
freedom to choose what software I run is not an acceptable compromise.

It's normal that you have some task or object that you need to do some
work on and that you can freely choose what machine or tool to use for
that work.  You choose what car to drive when you need to travel to a
location.  You choose what screwdriver to use to tighten a screw and
so on.  It would be strange if you could not freely choose what
software to use to download and display content from the web.  Again,
I know I can choose web browser but I can't choose your Javascript.