[geebee]

At this point, has "progressive" come to mean "will render without javascript (or css)"? I suppose eventually I will need to accept this definition, but I personally do think that this concept - a valid, valuable one - should probably have a different word. Either that, or we need a new word to describe a web app built with progressive enhancement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement

The idea to progressive enhancement (to me - I understand these terms weren't unambiguous even as they emerged) is that you start with content, add structure (HTML), and slowly "enhance" to higher and more elaborate UI features (CSS, javascript). You add each layer in a way that you can always fall back to a simpler method or rendering. It is not necessary to render the structure to access the content. It is not necessary to render the styling to access the structure. It is not necessary to render the interactivity to access the styling.

Now, a web app built progressively doesn't necessarily meet the criteria for progressive enhancement, since plenty of people add html, css, javascript, and beyond without preserving the ability to render from a previous stage. But I think people have confused the ability to render to a previous stage with progressive enhancement as well. It's a good quality in a javascript framework that you can still view your site in lynx or with a pure html browser, but writing your app upfront in a JS heavy manner and relying on the framework to fall back for you? I think that's something other than "Progressive Enhancement", because you didn't enhance your app progressively, you started at the highest level of UI. I'd call that a "backwards compatible" web app.