In Praise of HTML and CSS
2 days ago
- #HTML
- #CSS
- #Web Design
- The web was designed for documents, with HTML and CSS representing structure and style clearly.
- HTML and CSS are declarative, composable, and enduring tools, much like SQL or Clojure.
- LaTeX separates markup from presentation, making documents portable and maintainable.
- HTML and CSS inherit this separation, allowing web pages to serve many audiences at once.
- New frameworks blur the separation of concerns, risking transparency and portability.
- Embracing plain HTML and CSS makes platforms simpler, faster, and more accessible.
- Modern CSS features like Flexbox and Grid enable expressive designs without JavaScript.
- JavaScript is used intentionally for interactivity, state, and user-driven behavior.
- Older declarative systems like HTML and CSS provide reliable foundations for new projects.
- Writing structured web documents in Lisp (Hiccup) is preferred over raw HTML.