I don't really get this point... HTML is not _that_ complicated. I mean is:
<h1>this</h1>
<h2>this</h2>
<h3>this</h3>
really "more complex" than something like:
# this
## this
### this
You still need to know that '#' means header / title, and that more of them leads to a lower header level... and this is just for the most basic concept of web pages: headers. Okay, even if it's not markdown, no matter what system you cook up, the syntactic complexity to support the huge number of elements that exist in HTML has to live _somewhere_ right? (Yes, you can argue maybe not ALL of the 100+ HTML tags aren't needed, but probably most of them are!)
While there is something to be said for mega purists who don't even like JavaScript, we're supposed to not even like HTML anymore either? I think at some point you have to accept that building things for the web involves some minimum level of complexity...
Agreed, pure semantic HTML5 with minimal (if any) CSS is pretty much equivalent to what Gemini and markdown are going for. HTML5 is also a proper standard unlike markdown, which exists in a variety of incompatible versions.
If you haven't done it before, try teaching a non-programmer how to make and deploy a website. It's easy to forget where the sharp edges are because we cut ourselves on them so frequently.
I've observed that HTML/CSS/JS sets a minimum level of complexity that is a non-starter for most people.
I personally believe that most webpages could be written, arranged, and styled in formats easier than markdown (without a scripting language). But I could be wrong! Maybe nobody's done it yet because it's simply not possible haha
The vast majority of people who wrote their own websites back in the 90s were non-programmers. And the complexity of HTML/CSS/JS is oversold in a world where nine year olds are already building games on Roblox.
<h1>this</h1>
<h2>this</h2>
<h3>this</h3>
really "more complex" than something like:
# this
## this
### this
You still need to know that '#' means header / title, and that more of them leads to a lower header level... and this is just for the most basic concept of web pages: headers. Okay, even if it's not markdown, no matter what system you cook up, the syntactic complexity to support the huge number of elements that exist in HTML has to live _somewhere_ right? (Yes, you can argue maybe not ALL of the 100+ HTML tags aren't needed, but probably most of them are!)
While there is something to be said for mega purists who don't even like JavaScript, we're supposed to not even like HTML anymore either? I think at some point you have to accept that building things for the web involves some minimum level of complexity...