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No longer writing my own damn HTML

claytonwramsey.com

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Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#31

Post by peteforde »

I don't understand your hangup about using JavaScript to accomplish tasks that JavaScript is extremely well-suited to do. The idea that you are somehow imposing a burden on your visitors is an imaginary constraint which is actively consuming the finite minutes you have on the planet. This is a pyrrhic victory.

I am not advocating using SPAs of any kind, especially in a blog context. However, if there is a library which makes it easy to render MathML, why the hell wouldn't you just use it?

I'm not saying that I've never invented artificial constraints for myself; arbitrary goal posts that literally nobody but me would ever notice much less care about. I am saying that perspective is everything, and that sometimes it can be hard to see from the inside.

This is intended as an expression of care.

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#32

Post by Dalewyn »

peteforde wrote: post #31

I don't understand your hangup about using JavaScript to accomplish tasks that JavaScript is extremely well-suited to do. The idea that you are somehow imposing a burden on your visitors is an imaginary constraint which is actively consuming the finite minutes you have on the planet. This is a pyrrhic victory. I am not advocating using SPAs of any kind, especially in a blog context. However, if there is a library whi…

The ideal amount of JavaScript is zero.

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#33

Post by tonijn »

defanor wrote: post #24

As an option that still uses HTML, with relatively minimal and common dependencies: the unified header and navigation insertion, as well as other aspects of website generation and syntax checks, can be handled with XSLT. Or one may employ a generic macro processor like M4, which should be fairly easy to set to convert LaTeX into MathML, as well as to include shared headers.

XSLT is indeed great for this but very underestimated

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#34

Post by Dalewyn »

b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #11
claytonwramsey wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did think about that! However, I didn't like the idea of making the client side do work to make up for my own poorly-managed website. Forcing users to run code just to render some boring text seems like a waste.

Hmm - what is the actual cost incurred by the users here? Mostly battery right? Is that not virtually inconsequential to each individual? I mean you could sum it all up and compare it to human-hours or something but that's not a useful metric because it's distributed. Personally I think it's better to distribute the workload across clients. We'll probably see purely client driven UI's dominate the future. Imagine use…

>what is the actual cost incurred by the users here?

Time.

Every bit of JavaScript is more time to download, execute, and then render the page. Time is a valuable resource, users appreciate not being told to waste it.

>I think it's better to distribute the workload across clients.

The bulk of such loads should and ideally must be on servers, not clients. Use PHP, not JavaScript.

Also worth noting, the biggest motivator for JavaShit by far is the website owner(s) cutting costs. More load on the clients is more idling of the servers, the consequences of this will be homework left for the readers.

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#35

Post by rcarmo »

Sabinus wrote: post #27

I just want to say how funny it is that this is posted after the spirited discussion in the previous related thread about exactly what 'writing your own html' means. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42996322

It was likely meant as a counterpoint to it. However, I don’t really know what either story brings to the table in terms of learning value, either option has been with us since the age of CGI scripts…

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#36

Post by IshKebab »

Dalewyn wrote: post #32
peteforde wrote: post #31

I don't understand your hangup about using JavaScript to accomplish tasks that JavaScript is extremely well-suited to do. The idea that you are somehow imposing a burden on your visitors is an imaginary constraint which is actively consuming the finite minutes you have on the planet. This is a pyrrhic victory. I am not advocating using SPAs of any kind, especially in a blog context. However, if there is a library whi…

The ideal amount of JavaScript is zero.

I disagree. The gov.uk website completely eschews JavaScript at some usability cost, in particular form validation is delayed until way later than it would be if they added just a little JavaScript. It can be quite annoying.

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#38

Post by manuelmoreale »

peteforde wrote: post #31

I don't understand your hangup about using JavaScript to accomplish tasks that JavaScript is extremely well-suited to do. The idea that you are somehow imposing a burden on your visitors is an imaginary constraint which is actively consuming the finite minutes you have on the planet. This is a pyrrhic victory. I am not advocating using SPAs of any kind, especially in a blog context. However, if there is a library whi…

As a fellow no-JSer (when it comes to personal sites) for me it’s mostly about pushing myself to figure out creative solution using only what’s available within CSS and HTMl, which is a lot these days. It’s a fun exercise.

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#39

Post by rhubarbtree »

Dalewyn wrote: post #32
peteforde wrote: post #31

I don't understand your hangup about using JavaScript to accomplish tasks that JavaScript is extremely well-suited to do. The idea that you are somehow imposing a burden on your visitors is an imaginary constraint which is actively consuming the finite minutes you have on the planet. This is a pyrrhic victory. I am not advocating using SPAs of any kind, especially in a blog context. However, if there is a library whi…

The ideal amount of JavaScript is zero.

Why?

Re: No longer writing my own damn HTML

#40

Post by james-bcn »

I think the key to getting into the habit of writing blog posts is to make the actual process of writing and then publishing as easy and frictionless as possible. I use Bear app for the writing - it's a very well designed markdown editor with some really nice, simple features, such as nested tagging. I then got ChatGPT to help write some scripts to publish it via the Quarto static site generator. I wrote about the process here: https://thisisjam.es/creating/quarto-website-with-bear/
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